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URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/saparibaprocurement-cloud-tableau-online.rst

⇱ Build SAP Ariba Procurement Visualizations in Tableau Cloud

Build SAP Ariba Procurement Visualizations in Tableau Cloud

👁 Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Use CData Connect AI to connect to live SAP Ariba Procurement data and build visualizations in Tableau Cloud.

Tableau Cloud is an analytics platform fully hosted in the cloud. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to SAP Ariba Procurement data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to connect to SAP Ariba Procurement and build visualizations from SAP Ariba Procurement data in Tableau Cloud.

CData Connect AI provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for SAP Ariba Procurement, allowing you to easily build visualizations from live SAP Ariba Procurement data in Tableau Cloud without installing connectors or publishing worksheets and data sources from Tableau Desktop. As you build visualizations, Tableau Cloud generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes 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 Tableau Cloud

To work with SAP Ariba Procurement data from Tableau Cloud, we need to connect to SAP Ariba Procurement from Connect AI, provide user access to the connection, and create a Workspace for the SAP Ariba Procurement data.

Connect to SAP Ariba Procurement 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 "SAP Ariba Procurement" from the Add Connection panel
    3. 👁 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.

Configure SAP Ariba Procurement Endpoints for Tableau Cloud

After connecting to SAP Ariba Procurement, 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 SAP Ariba Procurement connection (e.g. SAPAribaProcurement1) 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 SAP Ariba Procurement data from Tableau Cloud.

Visualize Live SAP Ariba Procurement Data in Tableau Cloud

The steps below outline creating a new data source in Tableau Cloud based on the virtual SAP Ariba Procurement database in Connect AI and building a simple visualization from the data.

  1. Log into Tableau Cloud, select a account, and create a new workbook.
  2. In the new workbook, choose the OData Connector from the data wizard and fill in the values for your Connect AI instance. 👁 Selecting OData connector in Tableau Cloud
    • Set Server to the OData URL for your Workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}
    • Set Authentication to Username and Password
    • Set Username to your Connect AI username (e.g. [email protected])
    • Set Password to a PAT for the above user
    👁 Connect to Connect AI from Tableau Cloud
  3. Select your newly created database and the table(s) you wish to visualize (defining relationships for JOINad tables as needed).
    4. 👁 Choosing a Database and Tables
  4. Select Dimensions and Measures and configure your visualization.
    5. 👁 Visualizing SAP Ariba Procurement data in Tableau Cloud

Real-Time Access to SAP Ariba Procurement Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live SAP Ariba Procurement data from your Tableau Cloud workbook. You can create new visualizations, build dashboards, and more, with no need to publish data sources and workbooks from Tableau Desktop. For more information on gaining live access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources from cloud applications like Tableau Cloud, refer to our Connect AI page.