Integrate Live SAP Ariba Procurement Data into Custom Business Apps Built in Power Apps

Power Apps is a service for building and using custom business apps that connect to your data and work across the web and mobile — without the time and expense of custom software development. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to SAP Ariba Procurement data from the apps you build using Power Apps. This article shows how to connect to Connect AI from Power Apps and build an app based on live SAP Ariba Procurement data.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL, cloud-to-cloud interface for SAP Ariba Procurement, allowing you to easily integrate with live SAP Ariba Procurement data in Power Apps — without replicating the data. CData Connect AI looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Power Apps and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to SAP Ariba Procurement, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return SAP Ariba Procurement data.

Configure SAP Ariba Procurement Connectivity for Power Apps

Connectivity to SAP Ariba Procurement from Power Apps is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with SAP Ariba Procurement data from Power Apps, 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
   

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.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to SAP Ariba Procurement data from Power Apps.

Connecting to CData Connect AI

To use Connect AI to integrate SAP Ariba Procurement data into your Power Apps, you need a new SQL Server connection:

1. Log in to Power Apps
2. Click Dataverse -> Connections -> New connection
3. Select SQL Server 👁 Creating a new SQL Server Connection
   
4. In the connection wizard:
   
   
   • Choose to connect directly
   • Set SQL server name to tds.cdata.com,14333
   • Set SQL database name to the name of the SAP Ariba Procurement connection (e.g. SAPAribaProcurement1)
   • Set Username to a Connect AI user (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to the PAT for the above user
   • Click Create 👁 Connecting to Connect AI
     

Building a Data-Centric App for SAP Ariba Procurement Data

With the connection to Connect AI configured, you are ready to integrate live SAP Ariba Procurement data into the apps you build in Power Apps.

1. Log in to Power Apps
2. Click Create and select "SQL" 👁 Creating a new app from data
   
3. Select the SQL Server connection you created
4. Search for or choose a table to work with
5. Click Connect 👁 Connecting to SAP Ariba Procurement data
   
6. Customize the newly created app just like you would any other, including changing the layout and setting the fields exposed in BrowseScreen, DetailScreen, and EditScreen 👁 Customizing the SAP Ariba Procurement data app
   

At this point, you have an app with read access to live SAP Ariba Procurement data that you can save and publish for use within your organization.

SQL Access to SAP Ariba Procurement Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live SAP Ariba Procurement data from Microsoft Power Apps. You can create more connections and apps to drive business — all without replicating SAP Ariba Procurement data.

To get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect AI.