The simplest way to experience IoT in the HANA Cloud Platform – Part 1

While I can’t prove that the title is entirely true, the steps outlined below will be tough to beat in terms of cost and simplicity.

Early in 2014, our group was tasked with providing our global sales teams with a super simple way to show a live sensor connected to HCP and other SAP IoT solutions.  The purpose is to show an entire end-to-end IoT process where a sensor is either the trigger or a part of the process.  This had to be easily supportable for users who were comfortable with new technology as well as those who weren’t.  It also had to be flexible enough to be customized for specific customers.  So that you can experience this for yourself (and as was mentioned at the Berlin Keynote in September 2015), we are providing a series of blog posts which builds up a sample IoT application.

• In Part 1 (this post), we provide a deployment file of a project that can be deployed to your own HCP trial account. After this is deployed, you will be able to manipulate the sensor (movement, temperature, humidity, etc.) and you will see the impact immediately on the gauges of a simple dashboard.
• In Part 2, we provide an HTML5 dashboard app using WebIDE – available now here The simplest way to experience IoT in the HANA Cloud Platform – Part 2
• In Part 3, we explore how to persist the data in HANA in HCP
• In Part 4, we integrate with the IoT Services provided by HCP

For this blog, we utilize the TI SensorTag to provide sensor data for the fact that it is truly simple to onboard.  There are, of course, many sensors that can be used instead which have benefits over the SensorTag and have been highlighted in other blogs.  Once the sensor data gets into the HCP environment, the integration options become abundant (HANA, on-premise, S/4 HANA, etc.) and we will explore that in Part 3/4

So let’s get started so that you can decide for yourself if the title is legit or not.

Prerequisites:

– Obtain a SensorTag from TI.

At $29, this is a very low investment.  See http://www.ti.com/sensortag

– Install the Evothings client app on your iOS https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/evothings-client/id848974292?mt=8 or Android device https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evothings.evothingsclient&hl=en .  Your mobile phone will be used as the bridge/gateway from the sensor to HCP.  Ensure Bluetooth is activated because the sensor communicates via BLE.  For iOS, your bridge must be one of these or above:

• iPad (Air, Mini, 3rd & 4th gen)
• iPhone (6s Plus, 6s, 6 Plus, 6, 5s, 5c, 5 & 4s)

– Install a QR code reader on your device.

– Download the WAR file found here:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwdrs4BVb3zkTHNrUmQ0VnNCZEk/view?usp=sharing

1.  Deploy the WAR file according to the instructions here: https://help.hana.ondemand.com/help/frameset.htm?abded969628240259d486c4b29b3948c.html

2.  After the application has uploaded and started, click on the application URL.

3.  With a QR reader on your iOS device, open the QR code below and open the URL.  This will open the Evothings app and start the bridge application.

4.  Start your SensorTag by pressing the power button and the bridge will then connect to it and start to send data to the HCP application.

5.  Refresh the browser page and you will see the gauges.

6.  Shake the device, turn the device, cover the light sensor, apply heat, etc. to see the gauges dance!

Note that the SensorTag has 3 modes:

• Sleeping (no flashing lights)
• Available for Pairing (flashing green light)
• Active (no flashing lights)

Unfortunately, you cannot tell visually on the SensorTag if it is sleeping or active.

When you have the SensorTag in hand, these steps probably took you less than 10 minutes to complete, so it is proven to be a “simple” setup.  Stay tuned to the next few installments in this series to build upon this foundation.  Please let us know how we did with part 1 by providing some comments below!

Find out more during the TechEd Hands-On session.  You can find the details here: https://sessioncatalog.sapevents.com/go/agendabuilder.sessions/?l=112&sid=25283_453146&locale=en_US

Many thanks to my colleagues within the Solution Experience team who put the architecture together and is constantly creating valuable demonstrations of SAP’s ability to Run Simple!