Use the CData ODBC Driver for SAP Ariba Procurement in MicroStrategy Web

MicroStrategy is an analytics and mobility platform that enables data-driven innovation. When you pair MicroStrategy with the CData ODBC Driver for SAP Ariba Procurement, you gain database-like access to live SAP Ariba Procurement data from MicroStrategy, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. In this article, we walk through adding SAP Ariba Procurement as external data in MicroStrategy Web and creating a simple visualization of SAP Ariba Procurement data.

The CData ODBC driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live SAP Ariba Procurement data in MicroStrategy due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from MicroStrategy to SAP Ariba Procurement, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to SAP Ariba Procurement and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. With built-in dynamic metadata querying, you can visualize and analyze SAP Ariba Procurement data using native MicroStrategy data types.

Connect to SAP Ariba Procurement as an ODBC Data Source

Information for connecting to SAP Ariba Procurement follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments (the ODBC Driver for SAP Ariba Procurement must be installed on the machine hosting the connected MicroStrategy Intelligence Server).

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.

When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

Windows

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Linux

If you are installing the CData ODBC Driver for SAP Ariba Procurement in a Linux environment, the driver installation predefines a system DSN. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties.

/etc/odbc.ini

[CData SAPAribaProcurement Sys]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for SAP Ariba Procurement
Description = My Description
ANID = AN02000000280
API = PurchaseOrdersBuyerAPI-V1
APIKey = wWVLn7WTAXrIRMAzZ6VnuEj7Ekot5jnU
AuthScheme = OAuthClient
InitiateOAuth = GETANDREFRESH

For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).

Connect to and Visualize SAP Ariba Procurement Data using MicroStrategy Web

Once you have created a database instance in MicroStrategy Developer and connected it to a project, you can perform a data import of SAP Ariba Procurement data from MicroStrategy Web. Alternatively, you can create a new data source based on the ODBC Driver.^*

1. Open MicroStrategy Web and select your project.
2. Click Add External Data, select Databases, and choose Select a Table as the Import Option.
3. In the Import from Tables wizard, click to add a new data source.
   • Select DSN Data Sources
   • Set the DSN property to the previously configured DSN (CData SAPAribaProcurement Sys)
   • Set the Version property to Generic DBMS
   • Set the User and Password properties (or use filler values)
   • Set the Data Source Name
   👁 Configuring the new Data Source
   
4. After creating the data source, click to edit the catalog options and set the following queries and click OK.
   • SQL statement to retrieve tables available in the data source

     SELECT
      CatalogName NAME_SPACE,
      TableName TAB_NAME
     FROM
      SYS_TABLES
      

   • SQL statement to retrieve columns for the selected tables

     SELECT DISTINCT 
      CatalogName NAME_SPACE, 
      TableName TAB_NAME, 
      ColumnName COL_NAME, 
      DataTypeName DATA_TYPE, 
      Length DATA_LEN, 
      NumericPrecision DATA_PREC, 
      NumericScale DATA_SCALE 
     FROM 
      SYS_TABLECOLUMNS 
     WHERE 
      TableName IN (#TABLE_LIST#) 
     ORDER BY
      1,2,3
      

5. Drag a table into the pane. 👁 Connecting to SAP Ariba Procurement data.
   Note: Since we create a live connection, we can import whole tables and utilize the filtering and aggregation features native to the MicroStrategy products.
6. Click Finish, choose to the option to connect live, save the query, and choose the option to create a new dossier. 👁 Save the query and create a new dossier.
   
7. Choose a visualization, choose fields to display, and apply any filters to create a new visualization of SAP Ariba Procurement data. Data types are discovered automatically through dynamic metadata discovery. Where possible, the complex queries generated by the filters and aggregations will be pushed down to SAP Ariba Procurement, while any unsupported operations (which can include SQL functions and JOIN operations) will be managed client-side by the CData SQL engine embedded in the driver. 👁 Visualize SAP Ariba Procurement data.
   
8. Once you have finished configuring the dossier, click File -> Save.

Using the CData ODBC Driver for SAP Ariba Procurement in MicroStrategy Web, you can easily create robust visualizations and reports on SAP Ariba Procurement data. Read our other articles on connecting to SAP Ariba Procurement in MicroStrategy and connecting to SAP Ariba Procurement in MicroStrategy Desktop for more examples.

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Note: connecting using a ODBC driver requires a 3- or 4-tier architecture.