Create Power BI Reports on Real-Time SAP Ariba Source Data

With built-in support for ODBC on Microsoft Windows, the CData ODBC Drivers provide self-service integration with self-service analytics tools such as Microsoft Power BI. The CData ODBC Driver for SAP Ariba Source links your Power BI reports to operational SAP Ariba Source data. You can monitor SAP Ariba Source data through dashboards and ensure that your analysis reflects SAP Ariba Source data in real time by scheduling refreshes or refreshing on demand. This article details how to use the ODBC driver to create real-time visualizations of SAP Ariba Source data in Microsoft Power BI Desktop and then upload to Power BI.

The CData ODBC Drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live SAP Ariba Source data in Power BI due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from Power BI to SAP Ariba Source, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to SAP Ariba Source 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 Source data using native Power BI data types.

Connect to SAP Ariba Source as an ODBC Data Source

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. 👁 Configure ODBC DSN. (Salesforce is shown.)

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.

Create Data Visualizations

After creating an ODBC DSN, follow the steps below to connect to the SAP Ariba Source ODBC DSN from Power BI Desktop:

1. Open Power BI Desktop and click Get Data -> More... to open the Get Data window. 👁 Open Get Data window.
   
2. In the Get Data window select Other -> ODBC to open the next window. 👁 Select ODBC.
   
3. Select the DSN in the menu. If you know the SQL query you want to use to import data, you can expand the Advanced options node and enter the query in the SQL Statement box. Otherwise, click OK to continue. 👁 Select the ODBC DSN. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
4. Choose Default or Custom as the authentication option and click Connect. 👁 Choose authentication option. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
5. Select tables in the Navigator dialog. 👁 The available tables. (Salesforce is shown.)
   

6. Click Transform Data to edit the query. The table you imported is displayed in the Power Query Editor. In the Power Query Editor, you can enrich your local copy of SAP Ariba Source data with other data sources, pivot SAP Ariba Source columns, and more. Power BI detects each column's data type from the SAP Ariba Source metadata retrieved by the driver.

   Power BI records your modifications to the query in the Applied Steps section, adjusting the underlying data retrieval query that is executed to the remote SAP Ariba Source data. When you click Close and Apply, Power BI executes the data retrieval query.

   Otherwise, click Load to pull the data into Power BI.

Create Data Visualizations

After pulling the data into Power BI, you can create data visualizations in the Report view by dragging fields from the Fields pane onto the canvas. Follow the steps below to create a pie chart (Salesforce shown):

1. Select the pie chart icon in the Visualizations pane.
2. Select a dimension in the Fields pane: for example, Name.
3. Select a measure in the Fields pane: for example, Annual Revenue.

👁 A pie chart showing Account Names and Annual Revenue from Salesforce.

You can change sort options by clicking the ellipsis (...) button for the chart. Options to select the sort column and change the sort order are displayed.

You can use both highlighting and filtering to focus on data. Filtering removes unfocused data from visualizations; highlighting dims unfocused data. You can highlight fields by clicking them:

👁 A highlighted account in a pie chart. (Salesforce is shown.)

You can apply filters at the page level, at the report level, or to a single visualization by dragging fields onto the Filters pane. To filter on the field's value, select one of the values that are displayed in the Filters pane.

👁 Accounts and Annual Revenue filtered by Industry. (Salesforce is shown.)

Click Refresh to synchronize your report with any changes to the data.

Free Trial & More Information

If you are interested in connecting to your SAP Ariba Source data from Microsoft Power BI, or any applications that support ODBC connectivity, download a free, 30-day trial of the CData ODBC Driver for SAP Ariba Source. As always, our world-class support team is ready to answer any questions you may have.