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Connecting to Information Views from SAP HANA

When you are connecting to a SAP HANA data source, you can choose whether to work with the relational data or if you instead want to connect to predefined information views. See Connecting to Relational Data from SAP HANA for more information about relational data connections.

SAP HANA parameters are used to collect input from the user and return dynamic data based on that input. If parameters have been defined in SAP HANA, the parameters will be shown when setting up the data connection in Spotfire. You can then decide whether to prompt the end user for input values or if you want to configure the data connection to fetch input for the parameters using on-demand loading.

Spotfire supports several different types of prompts, but depending on which type of information view you connect to (analytic views, calculation views, etc.) you may not have access to all types. Required parameters are automatically configured to be prompted for, using the prompt type defined in SAP HANA.

Note: Multiple range parameters are not supported.

SAP HANA variables are automatically mapped against Spotfire prompts of the mandatory or optional type, and the prompt type will be mapped to the specified type according to the following schedule:

SAP HANA variable type	Spotfire prompt type
Single Value	Manual input or Single selection
Single Value + Multiple values	Manual input, Single selection or Multiple selection
Interval	Range
Range	(Range)

Variables in SAP HANA are bound to columns and used to filter the values in that column.

Range values in SAP HANA are used to find values larger than or smaller than a certain number. For example, Quantity < 4. This is not directly supported in Spotfire, because in Spotfire, you cannot choose any operators in a range. Instead, ranges are handled as SAP HANA intervals, and to select all values lower than a specific value you would have to specify a really low start value instead.

To connect to information views from SAP HANA:

Select File > Add Data Tables.
Click Add.
Select Connection To > SAP HANA.
Under Connect to, click Information views.
Make other configurations needed for the connection and click Connect.

Comment: See Details on SAP HANA Connection for information about the available settings in the dialog. Depending on the authentication method selected, you may need to provide a Username and a Password to continue.

Response: The Views in Connection dialog is opened.

In the Available tables in database list, select the information views you want to analyze in Spotfire and click Add >..

Response: The selected views are added to the Views in connection list.

If any parameters have been defined for the information view in SAP HANA, then these will be visible in a separate pane in the Views in Connection dialog. Required parameters are automatically added as prompts in the connection, but you can also add prompting for other parameters or columns by clicking Define Prompting and specifying new prompts.

Comment: You cannot change the order of the promps for parameters defined in SAP HANA, but other prompts can be moved.

When the configuration is done, click OK to close the Views in Connection dialog.
In the Add Data Tables dialog, click OK.

Comment: It is not possible to import data tables based on information views; they are always kept external. This is because information views are normally too large to successfully be imported in Spotfire.

When the data connection is opened, you must provide values for the defined prompts. If any default values exist for SAP HANA parameters, they will be preselected in the Open connection dialog.

Comment: The prompts are shown each time the analysis using this data connection is opened. This way, all end users of the analysis can select only the data of their interest when opening the analysis. You can also save the data connection in the library and reuse it in other analyses.

Tip: You can show the prompts for a prompted data connection again, and make other selections, by selecting Edit > Data Table Properties, clicking on the data table of interest and selecting Refresh Data > With Prompt.