SAP Analytics Cloud is a cloud-based business intelligence platform. CData Connect AI creates a pure, cloud-to-cloud connection to Salesforce and can be used to generate an OData API (natively supported in Analytics Cloud) for Salesforce. 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 Salesforce from SAP Analytics Cloud (through CData Connect AI) to create a model and build a simple dashboard.
About Salesforce Data Integration
Accessing and integrating live data from Salesforce has never been easier with CData. Customers rely on CData connectivity to:
- Access to custom entities and fields means Salesforce users get access to all of Salesforce.
- Create atomic and batch update operations.
- Read, write, update, and delete their Salesforce data.
- Leverage the latest Salesforce features and functionalities with support for SOAP API versions 30.0.
- See improved performance based on SOQL support to push complex queries down to Salesforce servers.
- Use SQL stored procedures to perform actions like creating, retrieving, aborting, and deleting jobs, uploading and downloading attachments and documents, and more.
Users frequently integrate Salesforce data with:
- other ERPs, marketing automation, HCMs, and more.
- preferred data tools like Power BI, Tableau, Looker, and more.
- databases and data warehouses.
For more information on how CData solutions work with Salesforce, check out our Salesforce integration page.
Getting Started
Connect to Salesforce from SAP Analytics Cloud
To work with live Salesforce data in SAP Analytics Cloud, we need to connect to Salesforce from Connect AI, provide user access to
the connection, and create a Workspace for the Salesforce data.
Connect to Salesforce from Connect AI
CData Connect AI uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.
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Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection
- Select "Salesforce" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source
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Salesforce uses OAuth to authenticate. Click "Sign in" to authenticate with Salesforce.
👁 Authenticating with OAuth (Salesforce is shown).
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Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Salesforce 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.
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Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
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On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
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Give the PAT a name and click Create.
👁 Creating a new PAT
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The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.
Configure Salesforce Endpoints for SAP Analytics Cloud
After connecting to Salesforce, create a workspace for your desired table(s).
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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.
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Click Add to add new assets to the Workspace.
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Select the Salesforce connection (e.g. Salesforce1) and click Next.
👁 Selecting an Asset (Salesforce is shown).
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Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm.
👁 Selecting Tables (Salesforce is shown).
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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 Salesforce data from SAP Analytics Cloud.
Create a Model of Salesforce Data in SAP Analytics Cloud
With the connection to Salesforce configured and the OData endpoint(s) created, we can create a Model for Salesforce data in SAP Analytics Cloud.
- Log into your Analytics Cloud instance and click Create -> Model from the menu.
- Choose "Get data from a datasource" and select "OData Services"
- 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
- Choose "Create a new query" and click Next
- Name the Execute, select an OData endpoint (like Account) and click Next
👁 Choosing a Connect AI OData endpoint to query
- Drag the columns you wish to work with into the Selected Data workspace and click Create
👁 Selecting fields (columns) from the OData endpoint
- At this point, a Draft Data source is created; click the draft to finalize the model
- Perform any transformations, including creating calculated dimensions, location dimensions, and combining data sources, then click Create Model
👁 Finalizing the model
- 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 Salesforce data.
- From the menu, click Create -> Story
- Click on SAP Analytics Template (this article uses the "Dashboard" template)
- Choose a layout and click Apply
- From the More menu, select a visualization to insert (Chart)
👁 Inserting a visualization
- Select a model to visualize
- Select a structure and the required Measures and Dimensions
- Save the store
👁 Saving the Story
More Information & Free Trial
Now, you have created a simple but powerful dashboard from live Salesforce data. For more information on creating OData feeds from Salesforce (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect AI page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live Salesforce data in SAP Analytics Cloud.
