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.
Fig 1: Data preview options in BW’s new Query Designer.
Fig 2: How to expose a BW query as a SQL accessible HANA view.
Fig 3: Creating a BW variable of processing type SAP HANA Exit.
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 on SCN. You can follow me on Twitter via @tfxz.
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