Connect to Live SAP Ariba Source Data in PostGresSQL Interface through CData Connect AI

There are a vast number of PostgreSQL clients available on the Internet. PostgreSQL is a popular interface for data access. When you pair PostgreSQL with CData Connect AI, you gain database-like access to live SAP Ariba Source data from PostgreSQL. In this article, we walk through the process of connecting to SAP Ariba Source data in Connect AI and establishing a connection between Connect AI and PostgreSQL using a TDS foreign data wrapper (FDW).

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.

Connect to SAP Ariba Source in 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
👁 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 PostgreSQL.

Build the TDS Foreign Data Wrapper

The Foreign Data Wrapper can be installed as an extension to PostgreSQL, without recompiling PostgreSQL. The tds_fdw extension is used as an example (https://github.com/tds-fdw/tds_fdw).

1. You can clone and build the git repository via something like the following view source:

   sudo apt-get install git
   git clone https://github.com/tds-fdw/tds_fdw.git
   cd tds_fdw
   make USE_PGXS=1
   sudo make USE_PGXS=1 install
   

   Note: If you have several PostgreSQL versions and you do not want to build for the default one, first locate where the binary for pg_config is, take note of the full path, and then append PG_CONFIG=
2. After you finish the installation, then start the server:

   sudo service postgresql start
   

3. Then go inside the Postgres database

   psql -h localhost -U postgres -d postgres
   

   Note: Instead of localhost you can put the IP where your PostgreSQL is hosted.

Connect to SAP Ariba Source data as a PostgreSQL Database and query the data!

After you have installed the extension, follow the steps below to start executing queries to SAP Ariba Source data:

1. Log into your database.
2. Load the extension for the database:

   CREATE EXTENSION tds_fdw;
   

3. Create a server object for SAP Ariba Source data:

   CREATE SERVER "SAPAribaSource1" FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER tds_fdw OPTIONS (servername'tds.cdata.com', port '14333', database 'SAPAribaSource1');
   

4. Configure user mapping with your email and Personal Access Token from your Connect AI account:

   CREATE USER MAPPING for postgres SERVER "SAPAribaSource1" OPTIONS (username '[email protected]', password 'your_personal_access_token' );
   

5. Create the local schema:

   CREATE SCHEMA "SAPAribaSource1";
   

6. Create a foreign table in your local database:

   #Using a table_name definition:
   
   CREATE FOREIGN TABLE "SAPAribaSource1".Vendors ( 
   id varchar, 
   Category varchar) 
   SERVER "SAPAribaSource1"
   OPTIONS(table_name 'SAPAribaSource.Vendors', row_estimate_method 'showplan_all');
   
   #Or using a schema_name and table_name definition:
   
   CREATE FOREIGN TABLE "SAPAribaSource1".Vendors ( 
   id varchar, 
   Category varchar) 
   SERVER "SAPAribaSource1"
   OPTIONS (schema_name 'SAPAribaSource', table_name 'Vendors', row_estimate_method 'showplan_all');
   
   #Or using a query definition:
   
   CREATE FOREIGN TABLE "SAPAribaSource1".Vendors (
   id varchar, 
   Category varchar) 
   SERVER "SAPAribaSource1"
   OPTIONS (query 'SELECT * FROM SAPAribaSource.Vendors', row_estimate_method 'showplan_all');
   
   #Or setting a remote column name:
   
   CREATE FOREIGN TABLE "SAPAribaSource1".Vendors (
   id varchar,
   col2 varchar OPTIONS (column_name 'Category'))
   SERVER "SAPAribaSource1"
   OPTIONS (schema_name 'SAPAribaSource', table_name 'Vendors', row_estimate_method 'showplan_all');
   

7. You can now execute read/write commands to SAP Ariba Source:

   SELECT id, Category
   FROM "SAPAribaSource1".Vendors;
   

More Information & Free Trial

Now, you have created a simple query from live SAP Ariba Source data. For more information on connecting to SAP Ariba Source (and more than 200 other data sources), visit the Connect AI page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live SAP Ariba Source data in PostgreSQL.