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⇱ Analyze BigQuery Data in SAP Analytics Cloud

Analyze BigQuery Data in SAP Analytics Cloud

👁 Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Use CData Connect AI to create an OData API on top of BigQuery data and visualize BigQuery data in SAP Analytics Cloud.

SAP Analytics Cloud is a cloud-based business intelligence platform. CData Connect AI creates a pure, cloud-to-cloud connection to BigQuery and can be used to generate an OData API (natively supported in Analytics Cloud) for BigQuery. By pairing SAP Analytics Cloud with CData Connect AI, you get true cloud-to-cloud connectivity to all of your SaaS and cloud-based Big Data and NoSQL sources — no need to migrate your data or write your integrations. Simply connect to Connect AI as you would any other OData service and get instant, consolidated access to all of your data.

In this article, we walk through connecting to BigQuery from SAP Analytics Cloud (through CData Connect AI) to create a model and build a simple dashboard.

About BigQuery Data Integration

CData simplifies access and integration of live Google BigQuery data. Our customers leverage CData connectivity to:

  • Simplify access to BigQuery with broad out-of-the-box support for authentication schemes, including OAuth, OAuth JWT, and GCP Instance.
  • Enhance data workflows with Bi-directional data access between BigQuery and other applications.
  • Perform key BigQuery actions like starting, retrieving, and canceling jobs; deleting tables; or insert job loads through SQL stored procedures.

Most CData customers are using Google BigQuery as their data warehouse and so use CData solutions to migrate business data from separate sources into BigQuery for comprehensive analytics. Other customers use our connectivity to analyze and report on their Google BigQuery data, with many customers using both solutions.

For more details on how CData enhances your Google BigQuery experience, check out our blog post: https://www.cdata.com/blog/what-is-bigquery


Getting Started


Connect to BigQuery from SAP Analytics Cloud

To work with live BigQuery data in SAP Analytics Cloud, we need to connect to BigQuery from Connect AI, provide user access to the connection, and create a Workspace for the BigQuery data.

Connect to BigQuery from Connect AI

CData Connect AI uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
    2. 👁 Adding a Connection
  2. Select "BigQuery" from the Add Connection panel
    3. 👁 Selecting a data source
  3. BigQuery uses OAuth to authenticate. Click "Sign in" to authenticate with BigQuery. 👁 Authenticating with OAuth (Salesforce is shown).
  4. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add BigQuery Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

  1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
  2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
  3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
  4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

Configure BigQuery Endpoints for SAP Analytics Cloud

After connecting to BigQuery, create a workspace for your desired table(s).

  1. Navigate to the Workspaces page and click Add to create a new Workspace (or select an existing workspace). 👁 The Workspaces page.
    👁 Adding a new Workspace.
  2. Click Add to add new assets to the Workspace.
  3. Select the BigQuery connection (e.g. GoogleBigQuery1) and click Next. 👁 Selecting an Asset (Salesforce is shown).
  4. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm. 👁 Selecting Tables (Salesforce is shown).
  5. Make note of the OData Service URL for your workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}

With the connection, PAT, and Workspace configured, you are ready to connect to BigQuery data from SAP Analytics Cloud.

Create a Model of BigQuery Data in SAP Analytics Cloud

With the connection to BigQuery configured and the OData endpoint(s) created, we can create a Model for BigQuery data in SAP Analytics Cloud.

  1. Log into your Analytics Cloud instance and click Create -> Model from the menu.
  2. Choose "Get data from a datasource" and select "OData Services"
  3. Choose an existing connection to your Connect AI OData or Create a new one:
    • Set Connection Name
    • Set Data Service URL to the Base URL for your OData API: https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}
    • Set Authentication Type to Basic Authentication
    • Set User Name to the Connect AI user (e.g. [email protected])
    • Set Password to the PAT for the above user
    👁 Creating a new OData Services Connection
  4. Choose "Create a new query" and click Next
  5. Name the Execute, select an OData endpoint (like Orders) and click Next 👁 Choosing a Connect AI OData endpoint to query
  6. Drag the columns you wish to work with into the Selected Data workspace and click Create 👁 Selecting fields (columns) from the OData endpoint
  7. At this point, a Draft Data source is created; click the draft to finalize the model
  8. Perform any transformations, including creating calculated dimensions, location dimensions, and combining data sources, then click Create Model 👁 Finalizing the model
  9. Name your model and click OK

Build a Dashboard in SAP Analytics Cloud

With the model created, you are ready to create a dashboard in SAP Analytics Cloud based on BigQuery data.

  1. From the menu, click Create -> Story
  2. Click on SAP Analytics Template (this article uses the "Dashboard" template)
  3. Choose a layout and click Apply
  4. From the More menu, select a visualization to insert (Chart) 👁 Inserting a visualization
  5. Select a model to visualize
  6. Select a structure and the required Measures and Dimensions
  7. Save the store 👁 Saving the Story

More Information & Free Trial

Now, you have created a simple but powerful dashboard from live BigQuery data. For more information on creating OData feeds from BigQuery (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect AI page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live BigQuery data in SAP Analytics Cloud.