Build SAP Ariba Source-Connected Visualizations in datapine

datapine is a browser-based business intelligence platform. When paired with the CData Connect AI, you get access to your SAP Ariba Source data directly from your datapine visualizations and dashboards. This article describes connecting to SAP Ariba Source in CData Connect AI and building a simple SAP Ariba Source-connected visualization in datapine.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL Server interface for SAP Ariba Source, allowing you to query data from SAP Ariba Source without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to SAP Ariba Source, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested SAP Ariba Source data quickly.

Configure SAP Ariba Source Connectivity for datapine

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

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

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

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

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

   • API: Specify which API you would like the provider to retrieve SAP Ariba data from. Select the Supplier, Sourcing Project Management, or Contract API based on your business role (possible values are SupplierDataAPIWithPaginationV4, SourcingProjectManagementAPIV2, or ContractAPIV1).
   • DataCenter: The data center where your account's data is hosted.
   • Realm: The name of the site you want to access.
   • Environment: Indicate whether you are connecting to a test or production environment (possible values are TEST or PRODUCTION).

   If you are connecting to the Supplier Data API or the Contract API, additionally set the following:

   • User: Id of the user on whose behalf API calls are invoked.
   • PasswordAdapter: The password associated with the authenticating User.

   If you're connecting to the Supplier API, set ProjectId to the Id of the sourcing project you want to retrieve data from.

   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 Source 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 Source data from datapine.

Connecting to SAP Ariba Source from datapine

Once you configure your connection to SAP Ariba Source in Connect AI, you are ready to connect to SAP Ariba Source from datapine.

1. Log into datapine
2. Click Connect to navigate to the "Connect" page
3. Select MS SQL Server as the data source
4. In the Integration step, fill in the connection properties and click "Save and Proceed"
   • Set the Internal Name
   • Set Database Name to the name of the connection we just configured (e.g. SAPAribaSource1)
   • Set Host / IP to "tds.cdata.com"
   • Set Username to your Connect AI username (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to the corresponding PAT
   • Set Database Port to "14333"
   👁 Configuring the connection to CData Connect AI
   
5. In the Data Schema step, select the tables and fields to visualize and click "Save and Proceed" 👁 Selecting tables and fields to visualize (Salesforce is shown)
   
6. In the References step, define any relationships between your selected tables and click "Save and Proceed" 👁 Defining foreign key relationships
   
7. In the Data Transfer step, click "Go to Analyzer"

Visualize SAP Ariba Source Data in datapine

After connecting to CData Connect AI, you are ready to visualize your SAP Ariba Source data in datapine. Simply select the dimensions and measures you wish to visualize!

Having connect to SAP Ariba Source from datapine, you are now able to visualize and analyze real-time SAP Ariba Source data no matter where you are. To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from datapine, try CData Connect AI today!