Archived : Passionate about SAP - A Blog

XOData : Latest News

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 19:11:00 +0000

Happy B'day PragmatiQa :)

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Tue, 18 Nov 2014 14:14:00 +0000

Single Page Brochure for XOData

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sat, 26 Jul 2014 16:50:00 +0000

..Following post by Rainer Stropek provides a quick overview on how to use XOData App.

..Time cockpit decided to bet the farm on OData instead of a custom web api. PragmatiQa's XOData shows what you get for free because of time cockpit supporting OData.

How to Visualize & Explore SAP NW Gateway OData Services online? : XOData Connect - Beta

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 09:37:00 +0000

Updated : 29/05/2014 :
Please see XOData Product Page for Details

As mentioned in my last post , new version of XOData is now available at XOData Connect with several improvements along with the connection/authentication option enabled - so now there is a way to access and explore any OData service from XOData - even if it's local and/or requires user/password.

Also, there is a special feature added for SAP NetWeaver Gateway OData services - to fetch all the available services from 'Gateway Service Catalog' and populate the Service List drop-down for easier exploration. In this post, I'll provide the details on how to use XOData to start online exploration of SAP Gateway OData Services.

~~If you want to try it now then drop us a quick note and we'll send you user/password. Request for Access~~

How to visualize & explore any OData Service online? : XOData Connect - Beta

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 11:09:00 +0000

Since we launched our XOData online tool to enable effective visualization and exploration of OData APIs - we received a few requests to enable access to OData services that require authentication or only accessible locally. ( e.g. on workstation or within Intranet over VPN ).

Updated : 05/06/2014 :
Please see XOData Product Page for Details . XOData Chrome-App is now available in place of online version.

New version of XOData is now available at XOData Connect with several improvements along with the connection/authentication option enabled - so now there is a way to access and explore any OData service from XOData - even if it's local and/or requires user/password.

~~If you want to try it now then drop us a quick note and we'll send you user/password. Request for Access~~

Hacking together an ABAP Syntax-Highlighter : Extending Prism.js

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 18:03:00 +0000

Provoked by this post: "SCN Syntax Highlighting for Dummies on SCN", I started looking into the possibility of hacking together a syntax-highlighter for ABAP – preferably a JavaScript library that can highlight the ABAP code at the time of web page load on the client side/Browser.

Way back in 2004/5, remember when we were young :) - I was putting together my first personal website www.geocities.com/rmtiwari with the purpose of sharing ABAP code and world domination :), of course. That site was long abandoned but still exist as a reminder of past at www.passionateaboutsap.com . At that time, I wrote an ABAP utility program, to download ABAP reports/functions as HTML page and *potentially* make the ABAP code presentable and readable on Web. I thought it was cool at that time – specially using html anchors to move from a form-routine or variable use to the declaration part, while reading code on web. It was not perfect or easy to use and I did not use it much myself :).
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Prototyping an ABAP OData Entity Data Model Generator: Preparing EDMX XML

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sun, 19 Jan 2014 02:27:00 +0000

Continued from my previous post "Prototyping an ABAP OData Entity Data Model Generator : Table Relationships" :

I’ll now write about the EDMX/CSDL preparation part and completed prototype program. Finally, we’ll do a few test runs to generate edmx/xml files and see how it looks when imported into Eclipse data-modelling plug-in.

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Prototyping an ABAP OData Entity Data Model Generator : Table Relationships

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 11:51:00 +0000

Moving further from first part of this application, explained in my previous post Prototyping an ABAP OData Entity Data Model Generator : Simple Transformation, I’ve now put together some details about the main ABAP executable program.
...Continued from previous post

So we now have the simple transformation program in place and next step is to develop an ABAP executable program that will take header/main database table name as input, fetch details of table meta-data/foreign-key relationships, populate a variable of type structure ZRAM_EDMX_CSDL_SCHEMA using selected data and then finally use "call transformation" to convert data to XML. I'll write about this prototype program....

Prototyping an ABAP OData Entity Data Model Generator : Simple Transformation

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 22:46:00 +0000

As mentioned in my earlier post It's the best of times, I’ve been trying to auto-generate the entity service-data-model XML ( EDMX file ) from exiting SAP database tables and their relationships.

Background:

SAP NetWeaver Gateway Service Builder (transaction SEGW) is a design-time environment to support creation of OData Services. It provides several options to support both, Outside-in and inside-out service Development Approaches:

I'll try to summarize these two approaches and available options in Service Builder before moving further with the prototype.

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Netweaver Gateway Services: oData Query Builder - A Prototype

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 21:59:00 +0000

As mentioned in my earlier post It's the best of times, I've put together some technical details of an ABAP BSP application. The application will use the generic "oData Query Builder" that is available as open-source at oData Website.

Summary:

I liked this open source oData Query builder ( see a demo here ) so I embedded this utility into a BSP application to enable simple exploration/testing of SAP Gateway oData Services ( only GET/Query part). Additional changes are made in ABAP BSP application to fetch all the active oData Gateway services with corresponding URLs from the SAP system and populate the endpoint drop-down. Rest of the functionality is pretty much as provided by the oData Query Builder library.

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The Age of David(s) and Goliath

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 14:35:00 +0000

First of all a huge thank you for all the support and encouragement after the announcement in my last post. Glad that I managed to write it finally, I posted a link on twitter and then went out to celebrate my daughter's b'day - a party for her and her school friends. Like Christmas, my daughter's b'day is almost a whole week event too :). My job at the party was mainly to play with my son..and not to confuse my credit cards' pin number with my last company's VPN pin :)

...that's when I started getting words of support and encouragement on twitter for my new adventure. Every little helps at this stage and I got a lot more than that! So thank you very much for that, means a lot. Also, I thought to capture some of these messages and when needed, use it as a source of inspiration later :).
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It is the best of times..

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sat, 28 Dec 2013 01:55:00 +0000

..hopefully.

Last month I quit CGI/Logica to start my own SAP Consultancy and solution development company, PragmatiQa Ltd. Obviously it was a difficult decision to quit Logica after nearly 10 years of my association with the company. The reputation, relationships and comfort zone not to mention the job-security, monthly paychecks and the important one - especially for a person with parental responsibility - the flexibility of working from home. Interestingly, you can actually think of quite a few nice words for your day-job, once you start thinking about quitting it :)

But like every software developer who opts for a career in software development for the passion and not merely as a stepping stone for a managerial / leadership positions in a big company or as a starting point of upward organizational hierarchy traversal mechanism :) - I too had a dream of taking the plunge - one fine day.
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Get the Joke!

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 23:01:00 +0000

I wrote a short post on Requirement Analysis and this one is about a special case that talks about - separating the joke from the requirement or other way round.

As a Consultant, Developer, Solution or Application Architect – whatever we call ourselves now a days – once in a while we get to analyse some requirements that may sound like a joke or an irony, if interpreted literally. The following might be an extreme analogy but some requirements could be along similar lines except that in the realm of software, it may not sound so ridiculous.

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The Essence of Functional Programming and ABAP.

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sun, 23 Jun 2013 00:59:00 +0000

So what the .... is this 'Functional Programming'?
It is a programming paradigm that typically avoids using mutable state. (Whatever does that mean?)

Functional programming avoids side effects (change of state) during execution of a function. Compare that to imperative style programming, like in ABAP, where usually state can be changed by commands/statements e.g. for I/O, database operations, global variables, buffering etc.

Stateful programming is a major cause of bugs in software programs. It introduces complexity, uncertainty and affects readability of code that in turn causes bugs during initial development and even more during maintenance. Such code is not easily understandable and other programmers end up making unintentional changes during maintenance phase.
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Power of the Core : Using XSD for XML Transformation in ABAP

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 14:20:00 +0000

I've already written a few posts on how to use the graphical editor to create Simple Transformations but I guess that's not good enough for lazy developers like me.

So now we are going to try a different approach assuming we already have the XSD file that describes the structure of the required XML.

Let's say you have an XSD file for which you want to generate/transform XML <-> ABAP. Of course you don't want to create the corresponding ABAP Structures or Simple Transformations manually neither you are interested in hearing about capability of another SAP Product in this field e.g. SAP PI/CE etc. That said ..

Simple Transformation for XML in ABAP - Part III & some JSON on the side

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sat, 26 May 2012 21:40:00 +0000

This is just to explain a bit further on one of my comments from the earlier XML related post : Generate Simple Transformation for XML in ABAP - Part II.

There were a few questions regarding transforming ABAP ITABs with deep structures to XML and setting encoding ( other than default UTF-8 ) for the output XML etc.

Politics of Change

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:51:00 +0000

I know it's more relevant in current scenario but I've no intention to discuss the World politics or Change, in general. It's slightly non-technical topic but still related to the IT consultancy and some of the issues we face during implementation of new software features or integration.

Technical challenges aside, some of the non-technical factors play a major part in success of any small or big project. As a consultant, while we love to work on the technical challenges, we can't avoid dealing with some of the non-technical aspects that can be termed as 'Politics'. Politics between the organization, departments, leadership, management or teams, that plays out during implementation of a change.

Customer is always right..

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 15:22:00 +0000

except when they are wrong ;) . Well, customer is almost always right but only about the problems/symptoms they are experiencing. But sometime even they are not in a position to completely explain their problems. And the gap becomes even wider when some customers start telling you about the solution, that they think, could solve their problems rather than focusing on explaining the requirement first. Suggesting the right solution is our job.

TWIST Continued : Importance of Intuition in Software Programming

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Mon, 02 May 2011 16:23:00 +0000

Moving further on the topic of Intuition, I tried finding some articles related to importance of intuition in software development. According to one of these articles:

‘We typically think of Intuition as the ability to know something without having to reason about it, or without being able to give a proper explanation, in the sense of science or engineering, of it’

Another paper references the original research [PDF ] and here is a quote from the abstract:

‘ The role of intuition in software development was discussed in a most original fashion
by Peter Naur in 1984. Yet there has been little subsequent interest in elaborating on Naur’s ideas. In seeking to explain this neglect, we argue that the accepted views of software development, both within the formal and pragmatic traditions, are deeply inﬂuenced by a conceptual framework inherited from computer science and that, within this framework, making sense of the relation between intuition and software development is inherently diﬃcult.’

If you had the privilege of working with someone who has developed a considerable expertise hence a recognized expert then you might have noticed that some of their immediate responses to a particular problem may seem like a magic. And if you enquire the reasoning behind, initially the logical explanation might be shady at best. In hindsight, however, it will all make sense. Initially, you may have a suspicion that the person has already worked with an exactly same problem in the past or even that he/she was secretly working on the current problem in-hand for past few days. But if it keeps happening regularly then you’ll have to accept it as their ability rather than coincidence.

rmtiwari: In my view, Intuition is one of the main characteristics of a person who has developed a considerable expertise in his domain about 16 hours ago via web · Reply · View Tweet

In my view, Intuition is one of the main characteristics of a person who has developed a considerable expertise in their field of operation compared to others. To clarify the kind of Intuition, we are talking about, is not a supernatural phenomenon but an ability developed through knowledge, intelligence and vast experience of working in a related domain. Deep Knowledge and intelligence are very important for someone to develop an insight. However a considerable experience of working in a related domain, building solutions and solving problems, could be the main aspect of developing Intuition.

While quantitative measure of experience is an important factor, there is no guarantee that everyone with 10+ years of experience in domain will be able to develop almost equal level of intuition. Natural talent in relation to correct career-choice and other qualities like passion, perseverance, analytical ability and an inquiring mindset could make the difference. While others quickly go back to sleep once a problem is resolved and never think about it again, those who managed to develop expertise, put enough thought on the root cause and related elements that lead to manifestation of a problem. Though such recognized experts can find the cause of the problem quickly they seem to spend more time after the problem is resolved - thinking about other possible solution that could have avoided or resolved the issue. The qualities mentioned also motivate them to ask questions, seek answers and get involved in discussions with their peers and role models.

Knowledge is an important aspect but if you think about it, Intuition helps where a proper knowledge of the scenario is un-available. While recognized experts would acquire enough knowledge, they are also aware of the fact that knowing everything of even a tiny domain may not be feasible hence for some not-so-urgent knowledge-requirements, they tend to keep the references of knowledge in their memory/notes rather than trying to learn everything about everything. They try to understand the bigger picture as soon as possible but may leave the minor details for later reference.

Perseverance and Patience are important qualities when it comes to solving problems. I remember an incident from my childhood: One of our examination papers had around 7 questions out of which 5 questions were supposed to be answered. I chose a question for answering and then later switched to another one. I told my father and he jokingly asked if I skipped the question because I could not solve it. Not sure if such provocations helped but I tend to spend more time solving a problem in-hand rather than switching to an easier one. That may have been a negative impact in some case of an academic examination scenario but proves quite valuable in real life problem solving where there is no such luxury of choice available.

One of my friends on twitter, Vijay Vijayasankar, a SAP Mentor, responded:

vijayasankarv: @rmtiwari intuition changes with age and experience..atleast for me :)

about 16 hours ago via Echofon · Reply · View Tweet · Hide Conversation
- rmtiwari: @vijayasankarv thanks! I would have missed the importance of age and tied it up with experience but worth mentioning it separately as well.
  
  about 5 hours ago via web · Reply · View Tweet
- vijayasankarv: @rmtiwari intuition changes with age and experience..atleast for me :)
  
  about 11 hours later via Echofon · Reply · View Tweet
Does age have an impact apart from experience? While I could surely agree that in development stage of human brain, from childhood to adulthood, age can play an important part however the relevance after attaining certain age could be a matter of scientific research. To keep it simple, I’ll keep the focus on the experience.

Sometimes senior programmers show-off their years of experience in domain to exert authority as an expert on discussions, meetings, forums and Blog posts etc. You may see references such as ‘I’ve 13 years of experience in SAP hence my opinions should be given due consideration’. In case you did not get the joke, yours truly has 13 years of experience with SAP. Jokes apart, this pseudo-argument should only be used in certain scenario where it could possibly lead to resolution of conflicts or in getting attention which otherwise would have been difficult. I think it’s not completely logical to cite number of years of experience as someone’s expert status but more people resort to such claims in the event of no other means to show their expertise to an unfamiliar audience. Excessive use of quantitative measure of experience as someone’s level of expertise should be avoided since quality of experience and natural talent are major factors too.

Here are the links to some of the blogs and discussions, which consciously or subconsciously may have provoked my original tweet and subsequent thoughts.

Jarret Pazahanick's 10 Ways to tell if you are an SAP Expert

Richard Jabbour's Being an SAP Expert - A Philosophical View

Not sure about it yet but hopefully, To Be Continued…

TWIST : That's What I Said on Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sun, 01 May 2011 00:57:00 +0000

Long time no see :) . But now I've thought of a relatively better idea that might break my ‘Developer's Writing Block’. Quite simply, I'll choose a few of my own tweets, will add value and transform those 140 characters into a shiny new Blog Post . LOL. Now how hard could that be !

So let's begin. What do I need first? Right ! One of my brilliant tweets . Yeah but which one or is there at least one?

Tried Twitter Search but that didn't help much in excavating those old tweets which must have been good and now gone missing ;) . Luckily, I've subscribed to a RSS feed of my favorite tweets in my Google Reader. It was for some of my experiments that you can check under Twitter section of the Blog - it will come in handy to find my own favorite tweets easily. Settled for a recent one ;) . Rest is easy just copy-paste; the most frequent activity performed by a Programmer - when they are not wasting time over internet. There you go!

rmtiwari: I'll choose a few of my own tweets, will add value and transform those 140 characters into a shiny new Blog Post .how hard could that be ;)
25 mins ago via web · Reply · View Tweet

Did not go too well, did it ! Kind of getting recursive so before it gets caught into an infinite loop of referencing each other, I better chose another one. Not a problem at all ! Plenty to choose from :)

SAP HR Organizational chart : A Proof of Concept using BSP and JS

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 01:07:00 +0000

Before I forget, let me share my weekend work with you. I will probably explain it further in another post but for the time being here is my brain-dump; actually it's dump as-in ST22 :). In short (dump), this is about a quick and light-weight solution for generating SAP HR Organizational charts. Surprisingly, standard SAP does not provide a usable Org Chart facility and you need to buy 3rd party products to get even a basic display of Org Chart (e.g. through ESS/MSS ).

While browsing, I found a JavaScript library and used it within a BSP application to develop a simple but very useful solution for this age-old problem.
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Career Break & Women in Technology - The Big Issue!

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 02:42:00 +0000

I've been asked a question from one of my Blog readers which I could not ignore. The question represents a bigger issue about the social responsibility of organizations and people, in general. Actually, this is not something that affects only women but also the families; you, me and the society . What exactly are we doing about it and is that enough?
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Infinite developers for the price of 3

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 11:09:00 +0000

Question : In a company XYZ Software International, one of the most senior and competent developers was given a task of building a new Team. For whatever reason or to keep the senior members aside for productive work, the manager sets a policy that the most recently recruited developer will conduct the subsequent interview. Assuming that a developer can ascertain only 60% of his own competency, how many developers should be recruited before the team will have an equivalent capability of 3 times the original developer. Consider the worst case scenario. Read more »

ABAP RegEx met CSV and said 'I'll keep a Tab on you'

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 14:16:00 +0000

I wrote about XML processing in my previous posts:

As much as we like to use XML for data-exchange, there are still a lot of legacy(pre-XML) data files floating between the systems. CSV files are used for ages and there are already some functions available in ABAP for the purpose. But all these standard or custom methods of parsing CSV, require more than 10 lines of code.
[ Image and comic from XKCD ]

Arrival of RegEx [ Regular Expressions ] in ABAP should be able to put an end to the miseries, developers have been facing with string ( match/find/replace ) operations.Read more »

Writing Thought-Provoking (Erroneous) Code

noreply@blogger.com (Ram) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:42:00 +0000

Do we learn from our mistakes? Probably not!.According to a research carried out at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology we learn more from our successes than our failures. Except that the research was carried out on Monkeys. Not sure if Monkeys analyse their mistakes as much as we, humans, do. At least programmers do analyse coding mistakes which in turn provokes thoughts and improve their understanding.

I was working on a quick prototype to manipulate the help-values for the status of CRM activities. I wrote following code and encountered an error message stating relation ' ' is still not supported.
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