Create Reports from SAP Ariba Procurement Data in Looker Studio

Looker Studio, formerly known as Google Data Studio, empowers users to craft customized reports featuring data visualizations that can be shared with clients while reflecting your brand identity. When combined with CData Connect AI, you gain immediate cloud-to-cloud access to SAP Ariba Procurement data to create visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article provides step-by-step instructions on establishing a virtual database for SAP Ariba Procurement and generating reports from SAP Ariba Procurement data within Looker Studio.

CData Connect AI offers a seamless cloud-to-cloud interface tailored for SAP Ariba Procurement, making it straightforward to construct reports directly from live SAP Ariba Procurement data within Looker Studio without the need for data replication. As you create visualizations, Looker Studio generates queries to retrieve data. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect AI efficiently channels all supported query operations, including filters, JOINs, and more, directly to SAP Ariba Procurement. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly provide the requested SAP Ariba Procurement data.

Configure SAP Ariba Procurement Connectivity for Looker Studio

Connectivity to SAP Ariba Procurement from Looker Studio is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with SAP Ariba Procurement data from Looker Studio, we start by creating and configuring a SAP Ariba Procurement connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection

2. Select "SAP Ariba Procurement" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SAP Ariba Procurement.

   In order to connect with SAP Ariba Procurement, set the following:

   • ANID: Your Ariba Network ID.
   • ANID: Specify which API you would like the provider to retrieve SAP Ariba data from. Select the Buyer or Supplier API based on your business role (possible values are PurchaseOrdersBuyerAPIV1 or PurchaseOrdersSupplierAPIV1).
   • Environment: Indicate whether you are connecting to a test or production environment (possible values are TEST or PRODUCTION).

   Authenticating with OAuth

   After setting connection properties, you need to configure OAuth connectivity to authenticate.

   • Set AuthScheme to OAuthClient.
   • Register an application with the service to obtain the APIKey, OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret.

     For more information on creating an OAuth application, refer to the Help documentation.

   Automatic OAuth

   After setting the following, you are ready to connect:

   APIKey: The Application key in your app settings. OAuthClientId: The OAuth Client Id in your app settings. OAuthClientSecret: The OAuth Secret in your app settings.

   When you connect, the provider automatically completes the OAuth process:

   1. The provider obtains an access token from SAP Ariba and uses it to request data.
   2. The provider refreshes the access token automatically when it expires.
   3. The OAuth values are saved in memory relative to the location specified in OAuthSettingsLocation.
   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SAP Ariba Procurement Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to SAP Ariba Procurement data from Looker Studio.

Visualize Live SAP Ariba Procurement Data from Looker Studio

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Looker Studio to create a new SAP Ariba Procurement data source and build a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into Looker Studio, click data sources, create a new data source, and choose CData Connect AI Connector.
👁 Create a new connection in Looker Studio

2. Click Authorize and allow access to your Google account. 👁 Granting permissions to the Connector
   
3. Click Authorize to authenticate with your CData Connect AI instance 👁 Authenticating with CData Connect AI
   
4. In the CData Connect AI Connector in Looker Studio select Connections to import from the dropdown and click Next
👁 Importing from Connections

5. Now select a Connection (e.g. SAPAribaProcurement1) and click Next 👁 Selecting a Connection
   
6. Select a Table (e.g. Orders) or use a Custom Query and click Connect to continue 👁 Selecting a Table
   
7. If needed, modify columns, click Create Report, and add the data source to the report.
👁 Configuring column definitions

8. Select a visualization style and add it to the report.
9. Select Dimensions and Measures to customize your visualization.
👁 Visualizing SAP Ariba Procurement data in Looker Studio

Live Access to SAP Ariba Procurement Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live SAP Ariba Procurement data from your Looker Studio workbook. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating SAP Ariba Procurement data.

Try CData Connect AI and get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.