SPS08 What's New SAP HANA Answers Blog
I remember teaching coding, formulae, databases back in the day. You had to know things or have a number to call when stuck. I trained IT staff and built green-field systems. I spent many hours writing user guides for a range of users, especially when sharing data moved to the cloud. I remember being in a class where students were writing user guides to go with systems they had built. One student suggested that rather than build interactive wizards or huge comprehensive documents it would be better if help was just as you needed it. SAP HANA Answers does just that. Today we are going to review SAP HANA Answers with reference to the help resources provided by the HANA Academy.
The series consists of 4 videos and associated transcripts which include a transcript replete with screenshots and annotations. The tutorials build upon each other so it’s suggested they are followed in order. The transcript is included under the video in You Tube under More.
A synopsis of each video and associated transcript is included below.
SAP HANA Answers - 1. Overview
The series starts with a general overview and explanation of SAP HANA Answers: it is a tool that sits inside SAP HANA Studio which simply provides help when you need it. SAP HANA Answers is described as a fully collaborative, context-aware environment without having to leave the SAP HANA Studio. With SAP full collaboration means precisely that, although you get most of the benefits from accessing SAP HANA Answers without actually logging in!
The Overview tutorial is thorough and starts with definitions of SAP HANA Answer's characteristics before outlining the benefits to customers.
It describes SAP HANA Answers as a context-aware content hub of information which provides access and sharing to information. Context-awareness is everywhere in SAP HANA Answers. For example, under File, Import if you click this icon you can find out what Data from Local File means from the SAP HANA Answers repository. The context of this window will be displayed on the right hand side.
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The tutorial then goes onto to explain that this also works with code by demonstrating it in a SQL window. SAP HANA Answers really makes Studio far more attractive for developers. It not only works for SQL, it works for the CE scripting language, XSJS, OData commands and any error messages that they generate at the bottom of the screen.
Another characteristic explained by the tutorial is crowd sourcing. Documents can be ranked according to endorsements and votes. This enables you to collaborate based on various measures of popularity. These are range from quantifiable and objective to qualitative and subjective.
Popularity Measure | Objective | Subjective |
Relevance | √ | |
Newest | √ | |
Active | √ | |
Votes | √ |
Popularity Measure | Quantifiable | Qualitative |
Relevance | √ | |
Newest | √ | |
Active | √ | |
Votes | √ |
The tutorial describes how customers and partners benefit from improved experience and productivity when developing within SAP HANA Studio. How? Well, while you're within the SAP HANA Studio, you can find solutions faster; you can even watch videos and read PDF's. You don't have to ALT TAB to your email or a website. Everything is self-contained and completely embedded within the SAP HANA Studio. The answers for all the questions come from a variety of sources such as the SAP HANA Academy and SCN. The best thing about SAP HANA answers is that all of these repositories of information are combined in one place and they are all managed and crawled by SAP HANA Answers as shown in the diagram.
The tutorial contains many examples of how SAP HANA answers can be used for a variety of queries and scenarios. These illustrate its ease of use and range of functionality. It also cover the advantages of logging on for collaborative purposes.
What's New SAP HANA Answers - Install plug-in
This installation tutorial covers how you actually install SAP HANA Answers into SAP HANA Studio. The SAP HANA Studio plug-in is very easy to install because the help resources point out what needs to be in place before you start and goes through the process step by step. The tutorial shows how you can install the plug-in from a local file or website.
https://answers.saphana.com/sap/answers/frontend/web
What's New SAP HANA Answers - Web
SAP HANA Answers can be accessed directly on the web without logging in to SAP HANA Studio. This tutorial shows you how to do it. You can ask a question directly through this website.
The tutorial reminds you how responses to searches are ranked i.e. Relevance, Newest, Active and Votes. Other things you can do without logging in are covered such as being able to flag content, follow authors and ask questions.
Logging in does provide additional benefits, such as more collaborative features. When logged in you can flag documents as Inappropriate, Inaccurate or Irrelevant. My Profile shows any messages you've received that have been flagged by other users. If you really like this content you can subscribe to it and be alerted when new messages been replied to on that specific blog, document or video. You can also endorse (vote) on content and respond to posts.
What's New SAP HANA Answers - Studio
This tutorial covers how SAP HANA Answers integrates within SAP HANA Studio. The 2 best features of SAP HANA Answers are covered extremely thoroughly in this tutorial which is replete with detailed examples of searching, collaboration and demonstrations of the benefits of logging in. The first feature is that if you select a specific part of Studio, you can get information about what that part means because the highlighted text as well as your current context determines the recommended content. In simple terms this means you can do either select the icon after selecting something or simply press F10 to be provided with a range of help resources (documents, videos, links). The other excellent feature is that you don't have to leave the SAP HANA Studio. All information provided is context-aware and it's all contained within the SAP HANA Studio.
Conclusion
In summary this mini-series within SPS08 What's New: SAP HANA Answers covers everything you need to know about what it is, how to use it and where it can be found. The tutorials are thorough and guide users of SAP HANA Studio through what is such a well embedded piece of software that it is difficult to imagine SAP HANA Studio without SAP HANA Answers. It's not going to obviate the need for experienced developers, but it will make access to development easier for those new to it and help businesses get solutions off the ground faster.
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