SAP HANA Cloud QRC 03 debuted the new SAP HANA Cloud What’s New Viewer. This new format for delivering ‘what’s new’ information allows you to interact with the content using filtering and sorting controls. You can examine your results in either a tabular or chronological view, export them to CSV and PDF, and share them.

If you are already familiar with the SAP BTP What’s New Viewer, you already feel at home with the SAP HANA Cloud What’s New Viewer.  If you’re not familiar, here are some tips that will turn you into a power user quickly.

Tip 1: Familiarize yourself with the Version and Release Data columns

To make searching and interpreting the Viewer data easier, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with what the Version and Release Date columns show; the values aren’t always what you’d expect.

To do this, scan Releases and Upgrades in SAP HANA Cloud to understand the two levels of SAP HANA Cloud–component and tooling–and their respective release strategies. This will make the values in the Version and Release Date columns make more sense, especially for tooling:

• Tooling changes tied to (dependent on) component-level changes will have a QRC value in the Version column and a QRC release date in the Release Date column.
• Tooling changes that make the tools better but aren’t tied to component-level changes will have ‘Version Independent’ in the Version column and a non-QRC release date in their Release Date column.

Tip 2: Apply filters

Unless you are using all SAP HANA Cloud components, the SAP HANA Cloud What’s New Viewer loads more data than you’ll need. Scope the data to what interests using the filters described below. NOTE: Except for the From/To filter, you must click the OK button on a filter dialog to apply the filter.

FILTER IMPACT

Component

Filter the data to the SAP HANA Cloud component you are interested in. For example, pick data lake to see only what’s new in SAP HANA Cloud, data lake. SAP HANA Cloud is also a selection for this filter. While it isn’t a component, per se, cloud-level changes such as provisioning instances are reflected in this scope.

Version

Filter the data to specific QRCs, or set it to Version independent to filter data to changes reflected in the tools.

Area

Filter the data to the type of activity you are interested in. For example, if you are an administrator, pick Administration.

Category

Filter the data to the feature you are interested in. For example, pick SQL to see changes to the supported SQL. You can also use this feature to filter the data to specific tools you use, such as SAP HANA Cloud Central.

Type

Filter the data by the type of change you are interested in. For example, pick Changed to see feature changes that could be meaningful for your system.

From/To

By default, data in the viewer spans a pre-set date range; however, you can change the date range or click the Clear all filters link to remove all filters (later, you can use the Reset to initial filters control to restore the default date range).

Tip 3: Switch to a chronological view of the data

By default, data in the viewer are displayed in a large table. But what if you want to see all changes chronologically since you last updated your QRC version? To switch between a tabular and chronological view of the data, use the view icons located just below the From/To filters.

Tip 4: String search for specific terms

Ever want to see all changes to a specific feature over time? Or, can’t find a change you read about before? Use the Enter search terms field, located just below the introductory paragraphs, to search for specific terms you remember. If you still can’t find what you are looking for, it could be because a filter is preventing you. Use the Clear all filters control and try your search again.

Tip 5: Hide columns of data that don’t interest you

In the tabular view, use the Select columns control, located just above the data, to hide columns that don’t interest you –and to maximize the space for those that do!

Tip 6: Save your view (URL)

If you find yourself reapplying the same filters each time you visit the SAP HANA Cloud What’s New Viewer, you can always capture the URL once you’ve set the filters the way you want them. This is because filter settings are appended to the URL.

For example, click Clear all filters to remove any filters, set Component to ‘data lake’, and set Version to ‘2021.30 (QRC 3/2021)’. You now have a URL similar to the one below that reflects your filter settings. You can bookmark this URL or store it somewhere.

https://help.sap.com/doc/a91f884257684c59923ef33c3fa6cf18/hanacloud/en-US/38cc9f70125646e0bb62b83b83e67564.html?sel1=Data%20Lake&sel2=2021%5C.30%20%5C(QRC%203%2F2021%5C)

Tip 7: Change your sort order

In the tabular view, you can change the sort order for all fields except Title and Description. To change the sort order for a column, click the little up/down arrow to the right of the column title.

Tip 8: See more on a page

By default, you get 50 rows of data per page of results in the tabular view. You adjust that using the Show dropdown located just above the results.

This can be very handy when your search returned a lot of items and you want to use <ctrl+F> to browse through all instances of a specific term on the page.

Tip 9: Export your results as a PDF.. with links!

Make your results portable by using the CSV or PDF controls located just above the data.

What’s amazing about the PDF format is that it includes clickable documentation links as well. What a great way to package up your filtering results and send them out to your team!

Tip 10: Share your findings

In Tip 6: Save your view (URL), you learned about how filters you apply to the data get added to the URL, enabling you to store the URL and preserve the settings.

Well, building on that goodness, once you have your filters how you want them, you can click the Share control, located next to the PDF control. When you click Share, the SAP HANA Cloud What’s New Viewer starts an email in your default email client and pastes the URL in it for you. Another great way to share your findings with others!

~ Hope these tips have been helpful. If you have questions or suggestions about these tips, please feel free to leave them in the comments section.