Try Out Multi-Model Functionality with SAP HANA Cloud Central and Database Objects App
Explore knowledge graph, property graph, JSON document store, and spatial capabilities in SAP HANA Cloud Central.
Overview
You will learn
- How to create and explore a knowledge graph, a property graph, a document store, and spatial data
Prerequisites
Prerequisites
- A productive SAP HANA Cloud database
- You have completed the first 3 tutorials in this group.
Steps
Intro
A knowledge graph can be used to store facts in triples providing additional meaning and relationships.
A property graph can be used to show the connections between items such as the connections between airports or between people or groups in a social network.
SAP HANA Cloud provides the ability to store and perform queries on spatial data such as a point, a line segment, or a polygon.
This tutorial is meant to be an introduction to these topics. For additional content see the tutorial groups Smart Multi-Model Data Processing with SAP HANA Cloud and Introduction to SAP HANA Spatial Data Types as well as the multi-model chapters in Basic Trial - Introduction to SAP HANA Cloud that are available once you sign up for the basic trial.
The following steps will create a knowledge graph that provides information on additional hotel amenities, explores the created knowledge graph using the database objects app, and then will perform a query on the knowledge graph. Knowledge graphs are also known as resource description framework (RDF) named graphs and are stored in a triple store.
Before you can create a knowledge graph, please ensure your instance has the triple store activated. Here are the steps to doing this:
Go to Manage Configuration on your SAP HANA Cloud Database.

Manage Configuration Under the Advanced Settings Tab, ensure the Triple Store option is enabled.

Add Triple Store The knowledge graph feature is not available for free tier instances. To view what is available in the free tier please refer to SAP HANA Database License
To learn more about knowledge graphs see Connecting the Facts: SAP HANA Cloudโs Knowledge Graph Engine for Business Context.
Execute the following in the SQL Console. This query creates a knowledge graph with several hotels and amenities such as an indoor pool, hot tub, fitness center, etc.
SQL--CALL SPARQL_EXECUTE('DROP GRAPH <kg_hotels>', '', ?, ?); CALL SPARQL_EXECUTE(' INSERT DATA { GRAPH <kg_hotels> { <http://example.org/hotels/Delta> a <Hotel>; <name> "Delta"; <city> "Waterloo"; <yearBuilt> 2012 . <http://example.org/hotels/hotelamenities/IndoorPool1> a <IndoorPool>; <included_at> <http://example.org/hotels/Delta>; <length> 25; <width> 10. <http://example.org/hotels/hotelamenities/Hottub1> a <Hottub>; <included_at> <http://example.org/hotels/Delta>; <length> 6; <width> 6. <http://example.org/hotels/hotelamenities/FitnessCenter1> a <FitnessCenter>; <included_at> <http://example.org/hotels/Delta>. <http://example.org/hotels/hotelamenities/Keurig> a <CoffeeMaker>; <included_at> <http://example.org/hotels/Delta>. <http://example.org/hotels/Sunshine> a <Hotel>; <name> "Sunshine"; <city> "Clearwater"; <yearBuilt> 1975 . <http://example.org/hotels/hotelamenities/Restaurant1> a <Restaurant>; <included_at> <http://example.org/hotels/Sunshine>; <seating> 95. <http://example.org/hotels/hotelamenities/FitnessCenter2> a <FitnessCenter>; <included_at> <http://example.org/hotels/Sunshine>. <http://example.org/hotels/hotelamenities/Laundry1> a <DryCleaning>; <included_at> <http://example.org/hotels/Sunshine>. <http://example.org/hotels/Congress> a <Hotel>; <name> "Congress"; <city> "Seattle"; <yearBuilt> 2012 . <http://example.org/hotels/hotelamenities/IndoorPool2> a <IndoorPool>; <included_at> <http://example.org/hotels/Congress>; <length> 30; <width> 15. <http://example.org/hotels/hotelamenities/Restaurant2> a <Restaurant>; <included_at> <http://example.org/hotels/Congress>; <seating> 122. <http://example.org/hotels/hotelamenities/FitnessCenter3> a <FitnessCenter>; <included_at> <http://example.org/hotels/Congress>. <http://example.org/hotels/hotelamenities/Spa1> a <Spa>; <included_at> <http://example.org/hotels/Congress>. <http://example.org/hotels/OceanStar> a <Hotel>; <name> "Ocean Star"; <city> "Atlantic City"; <yearBuilt> 2012 . <http://example.org/hotels/hotelamenities/IndoorPool3> a <IndoorPool>; <included_at> <http://example.org/hotels/OceanStar>; <length> 50; <width> 30. <http://example.org/hotels/hotelamenities/Restaurant2> a <Restaurant>; <included_at> <http://example.org/hotels/OceanStar>; <seating> 205. <http://example.org/hotels/hotelamenities/Cleaning1> a <CleaningServices>; <included_at> <http://example.org/hotels/OceanStar>. <http://example.org/hotels/hotelamenities/Spa2> a <Spa>; <included_at> <http://example.org/hotels/OceanStar>. <http://example.org/hotels/LongIsland> a <Hotel>; <name> "LongIsland"; <city> "Long Island"; <yearBuilt> 2021 . <http://example.org/hotels/hotelamenities/Entertainment1> a <Entertainment>; <included_at> <http://example.org/hotels/LongIsland>. <http://example.org/hotels/hotelamenities/Restaurant3> a <Restaurant>; <included_at> <http://example.org/hotels/LongIsland>; <seating> 122. <http://example.org/hotels/hotelamenities/Cleaning2> a <CleaningServices>; <included_at> <http://example.org/hotels/LongIsland>. <http://example.org/hotels/hotelamenities/Spa3> a <Spa>; <included_at> <http://example.org/hotels/LongIsland>. <http://example.org/hotels/hotelamenities/Hottub2> a <Hottub>; <included_at> <http://example.org/hotels/LongIsland>. } } ', '', ?, ? );Additional examples can be found at SAP HANA Cloud, SAP HANA Database SPARQL Reference Guide
To visualize and examine the knowledge graph database objects, you must first enable the feature in your preferences. Click on your account

Account Settings Go to the Database Objects tab

Database Objects Tab Enable RDF Named Graphs

Enable RDF Graphs You will now have the RDF Named Graphs view available.

RDF Named Graphs View You may also edit visibility by navigating to Select Object Types

Select Objects The DEFAULT graph is where content goes when it doesn’t have a name. For more information, review the DEFAULT_GRAPHS and Named Graphs help page.
Click on the kg_hotels graph, and open the graph ontology to see the nodes.

Graph Ontology View Run a query to find hotelsย that have an indoor pool.
SQLSELECT * FROM SPARQL_TABLE(' PREFIX ex: <http://example.org/hotels/> SELECT ?hotel ?hotelName ?city ?yearBuilt ?poolLength ?poolWidth FROM <kg_hotels> WHERE { ?hotel a <Hotel> ; <name> ?hotelName ; <city> ?city ; <yearBuilt> ?yearBuilt . ?pool a <IndoorPool> ; <included_at> ?hotel ; <length> ?poolLength ; <width> ?poolWidth . } ');
Indoor Pool Further examples of creating SPARQL statements can be found at SPARQL SELECT Queries Using SPARQL_TABLE.
The following steps will create a property graph workspace that can display the distance between hotels in a state. For details about the differences between a knowledge graph and a property graph see Choosing Between Knowledge Graphs and Property Graphs in SAP HANA Cloud and Why Both Matter.
In SAP HANA Cloud, a property graph is made up of a set of vertices and a set of edges. Vertices are stored in vertex tables, while edges are stored in edge tables. Vertex and edge tables are collectively denoted as graph tables.
Create a vertex table that represents distances between hotels by executing the following in the SQL console. Run the SQL in the HOTELS schema as USER1.
SQLCREATE COLUMN TABLE DISTANCES( DKEY INTEGER UNIQUE NOT NULL, HSOURCE INTEGER NOT NULL REFERENCES HOTEL(HNO), HTARGET INTEGER NOT NULL REFERENCES HOTEL(HNO), DIST_KM DOUBLE );Populate the vertex table with distances between hotels that are in the same state.
SQL--Washington INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (1, 10, 11, 11.8); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (2, 11, 10, 11.8); --New York INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (3, 12, 13, 217.3); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (4, 13, 12, 217.3); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (5, 12, 14, 71.9); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (6, 14, 12, 71.9); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (7, 12, 15, 71.5); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (8, 15, 12, 71.5); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (9, 13, 14, 212.2); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (10, 14, 13, 212.2); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (11, 13, 15, 212.1); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (12, 15, 13, 212.1); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (13, 14, 15, 0.4); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (14, 15, 14, 0.4); --Illinois INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (15, 16, 17, 23.5); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (16, 17, 16, 23.5); --Florida INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (17, 18, 19, 219.8); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (18, 19, 18, 219.8); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (19, 18, 20, 323.4); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (20, 20, 18, 323.4); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (21, 19, 20, 333.8); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (22, 20, 19, 333.8); --California INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (23, 21, 22, 149.5); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (24, 22, 21, 149.5); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (25, 21, 23, 35.7); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (26, 23, 21, 35.7); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (27, 22, 23, 163.2); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (28, 23, 22, 163.2);Create a graph workspace.
SQLCREATE GRAPH WORKSPACE DISTANCEGRAPH EDGE TABLE DISTANCES SOURCE COLUMN HSOURCE TARGET COLUMN HTARGET KEY COLUMN DKEY VERTEX TABLE HOTEL KEY COLUMN HNO;Navigate to database objects, select the Graph Workspaces tab, and open the previously created graph workspace to view its properties.

DISTANCEGRAPH properties Ensure Graph Workspaces is enabled in the database objects settings.
For additional information, see SAP HANA Cloud, SAP HANA Database Graph Reference.
Open the property graph viewer.
Set the vertex name in Graph Viewer by clicking on the settings icon.
Set the vertex label to
NAME.
DISTANCEGRAPH vertex labels Apply a filter to vertices where
STATEis NY. After specifying the filter, apply it by pressing the Apply button.
DISTANCEGRAPH vertex filter Apply a filter to edges where
DIST_KMis less than 100.
DISTANCEGRAPH edge filter Highlight the Long Island vertex using the property graph viewer settings. You may do so by selecting a color.

DISTANCEGRAPH highlighted Long Island View the details by clicking on the vertex or edge of interest.

View Details
In the steps above, the property graph viewer was used to visualize hotel distances, filter by state and distance, highlight specific vertices, and view details on individual vertices and edges.
Additional property graph examples include the Greek Mythology Graph Example and Open Flights. The company graph example does not currently display in the viewer as it does not currently support the display of homogeneous graphs. Property graph workspaces may also be viewed using the SAP HANA plug-in for Cytoscape.
The shortest path algorithm can be used to provide the optimal route between two vertices. The nearest neighbor algorithm can be used to show only the vertices that are connected to a specified vertex.
The following steps will walk through using the shortest path algorithm to determine the optimal route from Airport Hotel in Rosemont, IL to Regency Hotel in Seattle, WA.
Execute the following in SQL to add a few connections between hotels in different states.
SQL--Midtown New York to Lake Michigan Chicago INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (29,14,16,1227); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (30,16,14,1227); --Long Island New York to Lake Michigan Chicago INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (31,12,16,1357); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (32,16,12,1357); --Long Island New York to Beach Florida INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (33,12,19,1738); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (34,19,12,1738); --Congress Seattle to Star California INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (35,10,23,1817); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (36,23,10,1817); --Indian Horse California to Beach Florida INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (37,22,19,3861); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (38,19,22,3861); --Atlantic Florida to Long Beach California INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (39,20,21,4348); INSERT INTO DISTANCES VALUES (40,21,20,4348);After removing the previously applied filters, navigate to the property graph viewer, and select the algorithms tab. Update the Algorithm field to “Shortest Path”, specify the values shown below, and click Apply.

Graph Algorithms After applying the algorithm, the shortest path is highlighted in the graph viewer, showing the optimal route between the two specified hotels as a chain of connected vertices and edges.

Shortest Path
SAP HANA provides the ability to store and query JSON data. This can be useful if the schema of the data is often changed or if you wish to join data in SQL queries that comes from both SQL tables and JSON data.
The following steps will demonstrate how to create a JSON collection that can be used to collect notes about customers staying at a hotel.
The creation of a JSON collection is not supported in the SAP HANA Cloud free tier. To view what is available in the free tier please refer to SAP HANA Database License.
Enable the JSON document store.
For an SAP HANA Cloud database, in the creation wizard, or for an existing instance, the Manage Configuration dialog, enable the document store.

JSON Document Store Create a collection named
GUEST_NOTES.SQLCREATE COLLECTION GUEST_NOTES;Insert some data.
SQLINSERT INTO GUEST_NOTES VALUES ('{"FIRST_NAME": "Jenny", "LAST_NAME": "Porter", "REQUEST": "requested a courtesy call at 7:00 am"}'); INSERT INTO GUEST_NOTES VALUES ('{"FIRST_NAME": "Jenny", "LAST_NAME": "Porter", "REQUEST": "requested an extra blanket"}'); INSERT INTO GUEST_NOTES VALUES ('{"title": "Mr.", "FIRST_NAME": "Peter", "LAST_NAME": "Brown", "REQUEST": "requested an earl grey at 2:00"}');Notice that the structure of the Guest Notes does not need to be defined in advance.
It is also possible to use the Support for JSON Schema feature to define rules for your documents to adhere to. The example below restricts the “title” property to only accept strings.
SQLCREATE COLLECTION "GUEST_NOTES_WITH_SCHEMA" JSON SCHEMA '{ "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#", "properties": { "title": { "type": "string" } } }'; INSERT INTO "GUEST_NOTES_WITH_SCHEMA" VALUES ('{"title": 1, "FIRST_NAME": "Peter", "LAST_NAME": "Brown", "REQUEST": "requested an earl grey at 2:00"}'); -- throws error
Schema Validation Error The JSON data can be returned as a JSON document, in a tabular result, or can be joined with data from a table.
SQLSELECT * FROM GUEST_NOTES; --returns JSON SELECT FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME, REQUEST FROM GUEST_NOTES; --returns tabular result WITH myJSON AS (SELECT GUEST_NOTES FROM GUEST_NOTES) SELECT '[' || STRING_AGG(TO_NVARCHAR(GUEST_NOTES), ',') || ']' FROM myJSON; --returns all the results as one JSON document WITH GN_VIEW AS (SELECT FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME, REQUEST FROM GUEST_NOTES) --joins a collection with a table SELECT DISTINCT GN_VIEW.REQUEST, C.FIRSTNAME, GN_VIEW.LAST_NAME, C.ADDRESS FROM GN_VIEW INNER JOIN CUSTOMER AS C ON GN_VIEW.LAST_NAME = C.NAME;
collection queries For additional details see the SELECT Statement in the JSON Document Store guide.
The properties of the JSON collection can also be viewed under JSON Collections in Database Objects.

Collection properties Click on the JSON Data tab to view the JSON text.

JSON text
Further examples can be found in the The Small JSON Document Store Cookbook.
JSON collections can be imported using the import data wizard but are required to be in a specified format as mentioned at Import and Export. An alternative method of performing an import is shown in this step.
Find a JSON collection to be imported. The example below uses the Parks dataset from City of Waterloo Open Data downloaded as a GeoJSON file. Rename the file to be
ParksinWaterloo.geojsonto match the code below.Create a Python application and update the host variable below.
Shellnotepad loadJSON.pyPythonfrom hana_ml import docstore from hana_ml.dataframe import ConnectionContext import json host = 'xxxxx-ee5a-4782-bc7e-297099099b59.hana.prod-ca10.hanacloud.ondemand.com' port = 443 user = 'USER1' passwd = 'Password1' try : conn = ConnectionContext(address=host, port=port, user=user, password=passwd) except ConnectionContext.Error as er: print('Connect failed, exiting') print(er) exit() #If no errors, print connected print('connected') with open("ParksInWaterloo.geojson") as json_file: data = json.load(json_file) docstore.create_collection_from_elements(conn, collection_name="WATERLOO_PARKS", elements=[data], drop_exist_coll=True, schema="HOTELS")Add the required packages.
Shellpip install hana_ml pip install shapelyRun the application.
Shellpython loadJSON.py
load the collection Query the imported collection.
SQLSELECT CARDINALITY("features") FROM "HOTELS"."WATERLOO_PARKS"; SELECT "features" FROM "HOTELS"."WATERLOO_PARKS"; SELECT "features" FROM "HOTELS"."WATERLOO_PARKS" UNNEST "features" as "f"; SELECT "f"."properties"."PARK_NAME", "f"."properties"."TENNIS_CRT" FROM "HOTELS"."WATERLOO_PARKS" UNNEST "features" as "f" ORDER BY "f"."properties"."TENNIS_COURT" DESC;
parks with tennis courts
Additional details can be found at hana_ml.docstore package.
This step will import an ESRI shapefile or optionally a GeoJSON file containing points of interest in the city of Waterloo Ontario. The ESRI shapefile import will result in a table while the JSON import will result in a JSON Collection. In the following step, a search will be performed to return the closest points of interest to the Delta hotel located in Waterloo.
At the ARCGIS Hub, search for
Points of Interest Waterloo. Scroll through the results and choose the selection below.
Search Choose to download the data as a
shapefile. The final sub-steps provide some details on how aGeoJSONfile can be imported.
download shapefile Unzip the downloaded
shapefile. Upload all of the extracted files (Points_of_Interest.shp,.dbf,.prj,.shx,.cpg,.xml) to your data lake Files instance using by navigating to the Data Lake Files app, selecting the desired file, and using the upload button.The
IMPORT AS SHAPEFILESQL requires the individual shapefile components to be present in data lake Files โ not the.zipfile.
Data Lake Files Upload If not already done, set up the trust between your SAP HANA database and data lake Files and create the HTTPS PSE and credential. The full setup is covered in the Export and Import Data with SAP HANA Cloud Data Lake Files tutorial.
By default, the database server adds the following spatial reference systems to a new database. Additionally, the
ST_SPATIAL_REFERENCE_SYSTEMSSystem View can be queried for available spatial reference systems.Import the shapefile using SQL, replacing the
hdlfs://path with your data lake Files REST API endpoint.SQLIMPORT HOTELS.POI_WATERLOO AS SHAPEFILE FROM 'hdlfs://<your-data-lake-files-endpoint>/Points_of_Interest' WITH SRID 4326 CREDENTIAL 'DL_FILES';The REST API endpoint can be copied by clicking the three dots in the Actions column next to your data lake Files instance in SAP HANA Cloud Central. Replace
https://withhdlfs://and append the base filename without extension. For additional details see Import ESRI Shapefiles Using SQL Commands and Spatial Reference Systems.Verify the import was successful.
SQLSELECT * FROM HOTELS.POI_WATERLOO;
view import View the table in Database Objects. Notice that the points of interest locations are stored in a column of type
ST_GEOMETRY.
view table editor Perform the below query.
SQLSELECT FACILITY, SHAPE.ST_AsWKT(), SHAPE FROM HOTELS.POI_WATERLOO;Notice that the location data can be formatted in a more readable format using the methods
ST_AsWKTorST_AsEWTwhich in addition shows the SRID.
view the spatial data Additional details on spatial reference systems can be found at SAP HANA Spatial Reference for SAP HANA Cloud.
For an optional example of importing a GeoJSON file as a JSON collection, see Export and Import Data and Schema with SAP HANA Database Explorer.
The following statement shows the list of points of interest within 3 kilometers of the
Deltahotel. Ensure you are in theHOTELSschema.SQLSELECT P.FACILITY, P.TYPE, P.ADDRESS, ROUND(H.LOCATION.ST_Distance(P.SHAPE, 'kilometer'), 2) as DISTANCE, P.SHAPE FROM HOTEL H, POI_WATERLOO P WHERE H.HNO=26 /*Delta*/ AND TO_BOOLEAN(H.LOCATION.ST_WithinDistance(NEW ST_Point(SHAPE.ST_AsWKT(), 4326), 3, 'kilometer')) = TRUE ORDER BY DISTANCE ASC;
Spatial Function Result For additional details, see ST_Point Type, ST_Distance, ST_WithinDistance, and ST_UnionAggr Method.
To view all access methods for spatial data, see SAP HANA Spatial Reference for SAP HANA Cloud - Accessing and Manipulating Spatial Data.
The latitude and longitude for a location in Google Maps can be obtained for a given address via the marker’s context menu.

google maps It should also be noted that when a used in a ST_POINT, x is longitude and y is latitude so the above point would be represented as
NEW ST_Point('POINT (-94.71832 32.50459)', 4326).
Congratulations! You have explored a few of the multi-model features in SAP HANA and are now familiar with graph workspaces, JSON collections, and spatial data when using the SAP HANA database explorer.
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