XSA Client Tools & Java Data Services in HANA Express

[Former Member]

Hi all,

i successfully downloaded the free SAP HANA Express Edition. I also started playing around with this edition. Related to the initial get to know i have few questions where i cant find answers in the public internet:

1. Where I can download the XS CLI Client Tools. I know within the HXE virtual maschine it is already installed. However, i want to develop on my local machine. Somebody knows where to download it?

2. In the SAP XSA Developer Guide (Guide, on page 416), they mentioned the Java Buildpack. The provided github link is not valid. Somebody know where to get this buildpack?

3. Related to question 2, they also mentioned Java Data Services which allows us to generate JPA Java classes directly from our CDS Data Model. Where I get this Java Data Service Tools? Or they are included in the Java Buildpack

Thanks.

Best regards,

Manjinder

[thomas_jung · Accepted solution]

Actually we would expect that most development takes place via the SAP Web IDE for SAP HANA. The XS Client would be a secondary tool then. But yes if you want to develop with 3rd party editors you would use the XS Client more extensively.

I'm curious why you wouldn't want to use the XS client already on the HANA server image? I understand that in a normal server scenario a developer probably wouldn't have OS access. However HANA express is a "personal" developer edition most likely running on your local, private machine. Why not use the command line there to perform push / deploy? In the early days of development before we had the SAP Web IDE for SAP HANA, I used to do a lot of work like this. I setup a shared folder that was exposed to both my host OS and guest Linux OS. I could code using Sublime in my Windows host OS and then push using the XS client in a terminal window connected to the guest Linux OS. That approach worked pretty well actually.

[Former Member]

Yes creating a shared folder is one option. I will try it. In my case i want to develop some Java applications which runs directly on the XSA runtime. For this purpose i want to use Eclipse rather than the WebIDE from Hana. In this case the XS Client would be very helpful. However, i will try the option by creating a shared folder and push it via terminal window connected to the guest Linux OS.

You are right in case of developing with SAP WEB IDE you dont need the XS Client. However, if SAP will really follow the Clound Foundry aspects then the XS Client is really a nice tool, especially for the future when more runtimes and languages will be supported by Hana.

[Former Member]

Hi Thomas,

thanks for the information. This is very strange why SAP not offering the XS Client for public download. Nobody (at in my case) will develop on the virtual machine. Moreover, i was thinking that SAP is giving developer the opportunity to explore HANA. But if the required DevOps are not shipped with the HANA Express Edition is not good. Hope SAP will improvement it in the future.

Best regards,

Manjinder

[thomas_jung]

1. You would have to download it from the Service Marketplace, but to do so you would have to be licensed for SAP HANA. There is no separate download for this yet. Until then you will have to use the XS Client within the OS of the HANA server itself.