HANA Studio: Installation and usage

Question

Hi,
I am currently retaking the the introduction course in the HANA development and wonder about the HANA studio GUI presented there.
Installation:
I see on the HANA Dev site that there is the Studio and the Client. Do I need both for installation? Or is in the studio already the client provided? If not, why are they separated? (instead of combined?)
Short: What is finally required for installation?
Plus in the intro on the second unit it is mentioned that I have to install as well some regi (???) client to access the HANA repositories. Is this still true? Also reg. config I see in the 1.0.80 version not the config-items as mentioned in the video. So, do I need them? resp. where to configure them?
Usage:
And last but not least I wonder about the statement that the System View is not much used. Better use the Project Explorer (or so). According to the video you could create your own files with the extensions you like and they will automatically associate with the proper editor. Is it really that in daily business the System View is hardly used? One creates his/her own files with appending the appropriate file ending?
roland

Answer 1

>Since everything is done in the System View (e.g. create an Analytic View) where is it stored?
It doesn't matter if you use the Systems View or the Project Explorer; the content is stored the same place/way on the server. When you save/commit in either tool the content is always stored in the HANA Repository.  The HANA Repository is just a set of database tables (_SYS_REPO schema).
>Before activation and after?
You shouldn't really go picking around in the Repository database tables, but if you are curious before activation the content is stored in _SYS_REPO.INACTIVE_OBJECT and after activation in _SYS_REPO.ACTIVE_OBJECT.
>Therefore that I cannot switch forth and back with versions of a View, correct?
If you use the project explorer you can just access the version management from the History tab and restore or compare from any previous versions:
>When I follow your video, than I create first a package in the System, which will be updated in my repository view. Checkout, checkin, compare old vs. older version, etc. can only be done in the Repository View, correct?
You have to keep in mind that the Systems view was created before we really had a developer perspective in HANA Studio. It was design with Information Modeling (view creation) only in mind. Therefore in SPS05 when we added the developer perspective and many of the new development artifacts we introduced the repository and project explorer view.  When you create a package via either tool - they are the same thing. However if you want to then work with a project or any of the newer development artifacts you must check out the project from the repository view and edit the objects via the project explorer.
>Is it also possible to check (resp. compare) if something in a folder structure was changed?
Changed by someone else after you checked it out? If so, you usually would just do another check out from the project.  Otherwise you will find any conflicts when you activate.
>In SPS08 the project is automatically connected with the Team and I don't have to do anything further, like Share. Correct?
Correct.  We continue to make usability enhancements and the automatic sharing of a project during the project creation wizard is one of those.  We will continue with such enhancements in SPS09 - allowing the project creation wizard to also general some of the basic development artifacts (like xsapp and xsaccess) for you.  You might be interested to know that we have a new openSAP course for HANA development starting at the beginning of October and it is based upon SPS08 and will showcase these improved workflows.
>For SPS08 is there an easier way to create the .xsaccess-file?
There is a new wizard that inserts a template content. It certainly shouldn't lock up your system to choose the wizard. Not sure why that would happen.  You can also use the HANA Application Lifecycle Management tools and its Application Creation Wizard to generate the initial development objects with template content. For the complete list of all available options, please refer to the developers' guide on help.sap.com.
>Editor = at least two tabs, one with drop-down lists and one with text-files
Not within the Studio.  After you have created the XSACCESS File it can be 'configured' via the XS Admin web interface. Not all options of the xsaccess file can be set from the XS Admin tool yet, however. Today you can mainly configure the authentication options.
In SPS09 we will extend these options to also include the CORS and Headers configuration:
>Does this mean, the files are automatically synced?
They are automatically committed upon any create or save operation.  Originally in SPS05 you had to always choose to commit via a context menu.  To improve the user experience we changed this to automatic. The manual commit menu option is still there (team->commit from the right mouse context menu). However it is really only needed if something goes wrong with the communication to the server or if you were developing offline and then want to force sync with the server at a later time.
>Since in the connection no specifics reg. server, port is provided I wonder how the magic is done
No magic.  The XSJS code executes within the database.  There is nothing for it to connect to since by its very definition it is always running within the database. The XS server isn't a separate application server connecting via JDBC or ODBC.  The main point of XS is that it is a light weight application server fully embedded within the database.