Feed SAP Netweaver Gateway Data into FineReport

The CData JDBC Driver for SAP Netweaver Gateway fully implements the JDBC standard and can provide SAP Netweaver Gateway data connectivity to a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools and custom applications. In this article, we explain how to set SAP Netweaver Gateway data as JDBC data source in FineReport and view SAP Netweaver Gateway data as a table in the Report Designer.

Set Up a JDBC Data Source of SAP Netweaver Gateway Data

Follow the instruction below to set SAP Netweaver Gateway data as a FineReport database connection.

1. Copy the cdata.jdbc.sapgateway.jar file from the lib folder in the CData JDBC Driver for SAP Netweaver Gateway installation directory to the lib folder of the FineReport installation directory. You will need to copy the cdata.jdbc.sapgateway.lic file as well.
2. From the Server tab, select Define Data Connection, click to add a new connection, and click JDBC.
👁 FineReport Server Tab (Salesforce is shown.)

Next we will set up the data connection definition in the window.

1. Database: Others
2. JDBC Driver: cdata.jdbc.sapgateway.SAPGatewayDriver
3. URL: A standard JDBC connection string using semicolon-separated connection properties.

   SAP Gateway allows both basic and OAuth 2.0 authentication. You can use basic authentication to connect to your own account, or you can use OAuth to enable other users to retrieve data from your service with their accounts. In addition to authenticating, set the following connection properties to access SAP Gateway tables.

   • Url: Set this to the URL of your environment, or to the full URL of the service. For example, the full URL might appear as: https://sapes5.sapdevcenter.com/sap/opu/odata/IWBEP/GWSAMPLE_BASIC/. In this example, the environment URL would just be: https://sapes5.sapdevcenter.com.
   • Namespace: Set the appropriate Service Namespace. In the example above, IWBEP is the namespace. It is optional if the full URL to the service is specified.
   • Service: Set this to the service you want to retrieve data from. In the example above, the service is GWSAMPLE_BASIC. It is not required if the full URL is specified.

   Authenticate via Basic Authentication

   In basic authentication, you use your login credentials to connect. Set the following properties:

   • User: This is the username you use to log in to SAP Gateway.
   • Password: This is the password you use to log in to SAP Gateway.

   Authenticate via OAuth Authentication

   You can connect to SAP Gateway using the embedded OAuth connectivity (without setting any additional authentication connection properties). When you connect, the OAuth endpoint opens in your browser. Log in and grant permissions to complete the OAuth process. See the OAuth section in the online Help documentation for more information on other OAuth authentication flows.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

   For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the SAP Netweaver Gateway JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.sapgateway.jar
   

   Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

   👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)
   

   When you configure the JDBC URL, 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.

   A typical JDBC URL is below:

    jdbc:sapgateway:User=user;Password=password;URL=https://sapes5.sapdevcenter.com/sap/opu/odata/IWBEP/GWSAMPLE_BASIC/;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;
    

👁 FineReport data connection definition window (Salesforce is shown.)

4. Click Connection pool attributes and set Test before getting connections to No.
👁 FineReport connection pool (Salesforce is shown.)

Click Test connection to ensure you have configured the connection properly. With the connection to SAP Netweaver Gateway set up, you can use it as FineReport data source.

Select SAP Netweaver Gateway Data in the Report Designer.

1. Click to add a new template data set and select DB query to open the database query window.
👁 Adding a new DB query.

2. Choose the JDBC connection that you created from the dropdown list.
3. The SAP Netweaver Gateway entities will appear as tables on the left pane.
4. Write a SELECT statement for the SAP Netweaver Gateway data tables and columns that you want to load.
👁 FineReport database query (Salesforce is shown.)

5. Click preview and data is shown as table.
👁 FineReport database query preview (Salesforce is shown.)

With these simple steps, SAP Netweaver Gateway can be used as a JDBC data source in FineReport.