#BWonHANA’s New Query Designer
Initial and lightweight versions have been shipped with BW-on-HANA 7.4 but, nowadays and especially with BW 7.5, the new BW Query Designer (BW QD) tool has reached full maturity. This blog summarises the most important facts that you should be aware of. All BW-on-HANA customers are recommended to consider the BW QD as the default choice for query design.
- It is based on HANA Studio and therefore Eclipse,
- it is a member of BW’s modeling tools (BW-MT),
- it is built on the same paradigms as the (native) HANA modeling tools to allow for a seamless and harmonised transition between the two worlds.
Due to the strong relationship with HANA Studio, the BW QD is only available with BW-on-HANA.
Installation
The BW QD is part of the BW Modeling Tools in Eclipse (BW-MT) with the latter being tied to HANA Studio. On this SCN page, you find almost everything that you require to get started. In particular, there are two videos (part I and part II) that describe how to install the BW-MT from the SAP Service Market Place. In those videos, an older version of the BW-MT and Eclipse are used. Simply adjust accordingly and use the most recent versions.
The Relationship with the BEX Query Designer
With BW 7.4 SP13 and BW 7.5, the new BW QD not only holds the functionality offered by the old BEX QD but goes beyond:
- The most prominent example is the sophisticated data preview. Options are the Analytics List UIBB by default or BEX Web Analyzer 7.x, Analysis Office and Design Studio if installed. See the top right corner of figure 1.
- Another popular example is the option to generate a HANA view from the BW query. See figure 2.
- A third instance is the option to create BW variables of processing type SAP HANA Exit. See figure 3.
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The old BEX QD still works and is the tool of choice for non-HANA based BW installations. For BW-on-HANA installations, however, it is highly recommended to use the new BW QD due to the many integration options with standard (native) HANA like SQL access or modeling.
Getting Started
This SCN page holds a bunch of useful information on the BW-MT and the new BW QD. I highly recommend to go through the 2 short installation videos (4 min + 7 min) mentioned above. Afterwards, have a look at the video showing an example of defining a BW query via the new BW QD (8 min).
This blog is also available here. You can follow me on Twitter via @tfxz.
Hi Thomas.
Nice Blog. We are planning for BW 7.5 upgrade on HANA. I need some clarification about the compatibility between BEx Query Designer and BW Query Designer in BWMT.
I know the other way works the existing BEx Queries can be maintainable in BWMT. But Could you please confirm if we create new queries via BWMT ( Eclipse ) , can we still open , maintain them in BEx Query Designer ?
Hello Vamsi,
queries that have been created with the BW Query Designer in BWMT can be opened and maintained by the BEx Query Designer as long as the query definition does not contain any feature which is not supported by the BEx Query Designer. Such a feature is for example the “External SAP HANA View” property which can only be defined in the BW Query Designer in BWMT. In that case you can still open the query with the BEx Query Designer but just read-only. Please check also SAP note 2071109 - Compatibility between BEx Query Designer and BW-MT Query Designer.
Kind regards,
Rainer
Hi Thomas,
We are using BWMT 1.13, SAP BW 7.5 SP1. In the BW QD, we are facing a strange Issue. We created few Translation Types in RSCUR, some of which are based of fixed Exchange Rate Type, and others are based on Exchange Rate Type Variables. In BW QD, the ones which are based on Exchange Rate Type Variables are not visible. Only the ones which are based on Fixed Exchange Rate Type are visible. While when we check the same in BEX QD, all Translation Types are visible. Could you please guide, how to fix this.
Regards
Pankaj
Hi Pankaj,
there was an issue regarding referencing variables from translation types in the query definition.
Please update the BW Modeling Tools to version 1.15.
On the backend you need to apply the correction note 2250649. Please check the consulting note 2133546, regarding the recommended backend corrections depending on the used version of the BW Modeling Tools.
For fixing the issue in the query definition please set again the currency type after the corrections were applied. With the mentioned corrections, the query designer detects the dependent variables for the currency type and includes them into the query definition.
Best regards,
Steffen
Hi Steffen
Thanks for your Reply. We will surely try with 1.15
We faced one other Issue, we are using 1.13, and we were not able to remove compounded Objects from Query Display. In BEX it was quite easy, but in BW QD, we are not able to figure that out. Is there a limitation or is there a different way to remove compounding Objects from Query Display ?
Regards
Pankaj
Hi Pankaj,
there shouldn't be any limitation in comparison to BEx. But probably I don't understand your question. Could you please describe the missing functionality in detail?
Best regards,
Steffen
Hi Steffen
We are using BW 7.4 SP13 and HANA Studio with BWMT 1.17.7 (ie, the very latest that we can find.
However, when we create (using the context menu for an ADSO or a Composite Provider), we cannot create a new query. The error is:
"Query &00O2TOPZXW1EYJ87N2NTGSF4I& is locked by another user" which makes no sense since we are trying to create a new query..
tony
Hi,
Same problem here.
BW 7.4 SP12
HANA studio 2.3.8
BW-MT QD 1.17.10
KR,
Jorge.
Same issue here 🙁
BW 7.4 SP12.
Same issue here, BW 7.4 SP13.
HANA Studio 1.18.7 (pretty old i think, but same error)
Did anyone find what was causing this issue?
“Query &00O2TOPZXW1EYJ87N2NTGSF4I& is locked by another user” which makes no sense since we are trying to create a new query.
Regards, Carlos
Hello all
Did one of you fixed this issue ?
I’ve the same with BW 7.5SPS1 and BWMT 1.18 for some Bex
Thanks
Hello all,
Has anyone fixed this issue ? If so please share details. Thx.
Hi all,
Has anybody had any success with this issue? I would appreciate any advice given.
Regards,
Meurant Naude
Do we have available queries that come standard with new BW4HANA?
Hi Nomsa,
there is business content for BW/4HANA. See this slide. However, to my knowledge, it focuses on providing basic building blocks and refrains from providing specific queries. But there is always a default query available on an infoprovider.
Regards
Thomas