Developer Ilya Belozerov: "SAP Koder Competition has become a good motivation to do web programming."
Most recently, we announced the start of the second SAP Coder for Developers competition.
Last year, the winners were the spouses Ilya and Tatiana Belozerovs, who developed a sales recommendation system based on the customer's purchase history.
We asked Ilya to talk about why they decided to take part in SAP Coder and how the project was working.
- Ilya, tell me, how did you get the idea to participate in the SAP Coder competition?
- Before the start of the competition, I had wanted to do web programming for some time. I have been working with SAP for a long time, but I haven’t been engaged in developing front-end services. One day they sent me a link to the contest - and I liked this idea, it became a good motivation for learning.
Back in January, I began to persistently listen to free OpenSAP courses , read documentation - but without result. You see, when there is no specific task, all innovations are put off in the back office. You listened to the course, studied something, thought - but did not do anything. And the competition is a great opportunity to embody your ideas. Therefore, I firmly decided to participate in SAP Coder.
- How long have you been developing for SAP? Could you participate without this experience?
- I have been developing on SAP ABAP for over 10 years. But it is obvious that the transition from ABAP to the development of web applications is very relevant.
After participating in SAP Coder last year, I realized that having experience with SAP is not important at all. I think that the guys who are engaged only in web development could solve the set tasks faster than me. The most useful was the ability to work with databases, and everything else had to be studied independently.
In the photo, the winners of the 2017 contest Ilya and Tatyana Belozerova
- Why did you choose the sales task and recommendations?
- It's simple: I work in a trading company, and the selected task was related to the topic of trade. My spouse is a sales consultant, and I am a developer. Therefore, it was obvious to us that automated recommendations in trade are really needed and useful. Now we are trying to introduce some systems in our company to increase sales, and the idea of trading recommendations, one might say, was “in the air”. In this project I wanted to combine business with pleasure.
- Was it difficult to start? Still, web development was a new topic for you
- it was easy for me. The fact is that SAP has a lot of educational materials - there was practically no such thing that I fell into a stupor and did not understand where to find a hint. All questions that arose were solved. Even difficult moments quickly became clear.
- And what exactly were the difficulties?
- For example, with the evaluation module and the construction of various coefficients. SAP offers to use it as a separate library - we can say that it is a “black box”. You make him a request - and he returns some result. Personally, I do not like black boxes - who knows how the values are calculated there and what I get as a result. Therefore, I began to use another option - a module on SQL scripts (also available in the SAP Cloud Platform). When used, it is clear what is happening inside.
For me, working with SQL scripts was a novelty - I had to work hard to figure out which values and functions should be used when working with the module, what and where to substitute, how all this affects the result. There were also difficulties in creating a front-end application, user interface - but only because I did not do this before.
A small challenge was the loading of test data: SAP provided us with a huge file that was heavy for transmission via the web interface. I wanted to download it through the application server, but there was not enough free space in the test version of the SAP HANA cloud platform. The fact is that the SAP Cloud Platform can be used for free, but with limited disk space. So I had to do enough “clumsy” - cut the file into pieces and load into the database in parts.
It was also interesting to learn that the SAPUI5 framework is constantly changing something, and it is difficult to find documentation for new versions. Here I had to be smart - I managed to sort out something intuitively, I clarified other things in various sources.
- How much time did it take to work on a prototype project?
- We had about 2 months for everything. In April, I completely immersed myself in learning: I listened to courses, delved into a new development environment for myself, but did nothing in terms of writing code. It helped a lot of sources. I found a lot of information, both in Russian and in English. Useful resources were OpenSAP, Publica on Habrahabr. The second month I worked intensively, and as a result I managed to finish everything quickly enough.
- Was there a desire to quit?
- You know, at some point such a desire really arose. This happened in May, when people at work began to go on vacation en masse, and I had to constantly work on development — sometimes in the office after work, then in the evenings at home. But I really wanted to finish the job, so I overcame this weakness and finished.
-If in the spring you already knew how everything would happen, would you become involved?
- Yes, I really liked this experience. I would participate again, as neither the organization nor the conditions disappointed. Everything was very comfortable, and I got a lot of experience and, undoubtedly, moral satisfaction.
- Can you use what you have created in the framework of the competition?
- I think that it can be partially used. But entirely - hardly. Still, the task was chosen precisely for the competition. The essence of the decision is a little utopian - depending on what the buyer puts in the basket, and also taking into account other people's purchases and purchases in other stores, the system gives recommendations for further suggestions. This is some general system of recommendations, which makes it possible to take into account the experience of other companies, some open or general data. I wanted to suggest the idea that even a new store, which has just opened, can also work with recommendations.
In principle, we are just discussing what can be done in our company in terms of recommendations, so I hope to use some elements of the developed project. We are going to offer management some ideas that can be applied. Alas, in the company we have not even switched to SAP HANA, not to mention the SAP Cloud Platform. But if they are implemented or I find myself in another company, definitely, the created prototype can be useful. However, the new web development experience, as well as work with the SAP cloud platform, helped me significantly expand my horizons and, I think, grow professionally.
Last year, the winners were the spouses Ilya and Tatiana Belozerovs, who developed a sales recommendation system based on the customer's purchase history.
We asked Ilya to talk about why they decided to take part in SAP Coder and how the project was working.
- Ilya, tell me, how did you get the idea to participate in the SAP Coder competition?
- Before the start of the competition, I had wanted to do web programming for some time. I have been working with SAP for a long time, but I haven’t been engaged in developing front-end services. One day they sent me a link to the contest - and I liked this idea, it became a good motivation for learning.
Back in January, I began to persistently listen to free OpenSAP courses , read documentation - but without result. You see, when there is no specific task, all innovations are put off in the back office. You listened to the course, studied something, thought - but did not do anything. And the competition is a great opportunity to embody your ideas. Therefore, I firmly decided to participate in SAP Coder.
- How long have you been developing for SAP? Could you participate without this experience?
- I have been developing on SAP ABAP for over 10 years. But it is obvious that the transition from ABAP to the development of web applications is very relevant.
After participating in SAP Coder last year, I realized that having experience with SAP is not important at all. I think that the guys who are engaged only in web development could solve the set tasks faster than me. The most useful was the ability to work with databases, and everything else had to be studied independently.
In the photo, the winners of the 2017 contest Ilya and Tatyana Belozerova
- Why did you choose the sales task and recommendations?
- It's simple: I work in a trading company, and the selected task was related to the topic of trade. My spouse is a sales consultant, and I am a developer. Therefore, it was obvious to us that automated recommendations in trade are really needed and useful. Now we are trying to introduce some systems in our company to increase sales, and the idea of trading recommendations, one might say, was “in the air”. In this project I wanted to combine business with pleasure.
- Was it difficult to start? Still, web development was a new topic for you
- it was easy for me. The fact is that SAP has a lot of educational materials - there was practically no such thing that I fell into a stupor and did not understand where to find a hint. All questions that arose were solved. Even difficult moments quickly became clear.
- And what exactly were the difficulties?
- For example, with the evaluation module and the construction of various coefficients. SAP offers to use it as a separate library - we can say that it is a “black box”. You make him a request - and he returns some result. Personally, I do not like black boxes - who knows how the values are calculated there and what I get as a result. Therefore, I began to use another option - a module on SQL scripts (also available in the SAP Cloud Platform). When used, it is clear what is happening inside.
For me, working with SQL scripts was a novelty - I had to work hard to figure out which values and functions should be used when working with the module, what and where to substitute, how all this affects the result. There were also difficulties in creating a front-end application, user interface - but only because I did not do this before.
A small challenge was the loading of test data: SAP provided us with a huge file that was heavy for transmission via the web interface. I wanted to download it through the application server, but there was not enough free space in the test version of the SAP HANA cloud platform. The fact is that the SAP Cloud Platform can be used for free, but with limited disk space. So I had to do enough “clumsy” - cut the file into pieces and load into the database in parts.
It was also interesting to learn that the SAPUI5 framework is constantly changing something, and it is difficult to find documentation for new versions. Here I had to be smart - I managed to sort out something intuitively, I clarified other things in various sources.
- How much time did it take to work on a prototype project?
- We had about 2 months for everything. In April, I completely immersed myself in learning: I listened to courses, delved into a new development environment for myself, but did nothing in terms of writing code. It helped a lot of sources. I found a lot of information, both in Russian and in English. Useful resources were OpenSAP, Publica on Habrahabr. The second month I worked intensively, and as a result I managed to finish everything quickly enough.
- Was there a desire to quit?
- You know, at some point such a desire really arose. This happened in May, when people at work began to go on vacation en masse, and I had to constantly work on development — sometimes in the office after work, then in the evenings at home. But I really wanted to finish the job, so I overcame this weakness and finished.
-If in the spring you already knew how everything would happen, would you become involved?
- Yes, I really liked this experience. I would participate again, as neither the organization nor the conditions disappointed. Everything was very comfortable, and I got a lot of experience and, undoubtedly, moral satisfaction.
- Can you use what you have created in the framework of the competition?
- I think that it can be partially used. But entirely - hardly. Still, the task was chosen precisely for the competition. The essence of the decision is a little utopian - depending on what the buyer puts in the basket, and also taking into account other people's purchases and purchases in other stores, the system gives recommendations for further suggestions. This is some general system of recommendations, which makes it possible to take into account the experience of other companies, some open or general data. I wanted to suggest the idea that even a new store, which has just opened, can also work with recommendations.
In principle, we are just discussing what can be done in our company in terms of recommendations, so I hope to use some elements of the developed project. We are going to offer management some ideas that can be applied. Alas, in the company we have not even switched to SAP HANA, not to mention the SAP Cloud Platform. But if they are implemented or I find myself in another company, definitely, the created prototype can be useful. However, the new web development experience, as well as work with the SAP cloud platform, helped me significantly expand my horizons and, I think, grow professionally.