Use the CData JDBC Driver for SAP Netweaver Gateway in MicroStrategy

MicroStrategy is an analytics and mobility platform that enables data-driven innovation. When you pair MicroStrategy with the CData JDBC Driver for SAP Netweaver Gateway, you gain database-like access to live SAP Netweaver Gateway data from MicroStrategy, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. In this article, we walk through creating a database instance for SAP Netweaver Gateway in MicroStrategy Developer and create a Warehouse Catalog for the SAP Netweaver Gateway data.

The CData JDBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live SAP Netweaver Gateway data in MicroStrategy due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from MicroStrategy to SAP Netweaver Gateway, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to SAP Netweaver Gateway 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 Netweaver Gateway data using native MicroStrategy data types.

Connect to SAP Netweaver Gateway in MicroStrategy Developer

You can connect to SAP Netweaver Gateway in MicroStrategy Developer by adding a database instance based on the CData JDBC Driver for SAP Netweaver Gateway.^* Before you begin, you will need to install the JDBC Driver for SAP Netweaver Gateway on the machine hosting the MicroStrategy Intelligence Server that your instance of MicroStrategy Developer is connected to.

1. Open MicroStrategy Developer and select a Project Source.
2. Navigate to Administration -> Configuration Managers -> Database Instances and right-click to add a new instance. 👁 Create a new Database Instance
   
3. Name the instance, select Generic DBMS as the database connection type, and create a new database connection. 👁 Create a new database connection.
   
4. In the database connection wizard, name the connection and create a new Database Login name, setting the user and password for SAP Netweaver Gateway. 👁 Create a new database login.
   
5. On the Advanced tab for the connection wizard, set the additional connection string parameters as follows.
   • Add the JDBC keyword to the connection string.
   • Set MSTR_JDBC_JAR_FOLDER to the path of the directory containing the JAR file for the JDBC driver. (C:\Program Files\CData JDBC Driver for SAP Netweaver Gateway\lib\ on Windows.)
   • Set DRIVER to cdata.jdbc.sapgateway.SAPGatewayDriver, the driver class.
   • Set URL to the JDBC URL for the SAP Netweaver Gateway driver, which contains the necessary 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.

   Typical additional connection string properties follow:

   JDBC;MSTR_JDBC_JAR_FOLDER=PATH\TO\JAR\;DRIVER=cdata.jdbc.sapgateway.SAPGatewayDriver;URL={jdbc:sapgateway:User=user;Password=password;URL=https://sapes5.sapdevcenter.com/sap/opu/odata/IWBEP/GWSAMPLE_BASIC/;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;};
   

   👁 Configuring the connection to SAP Netweaver Gateway data using JDBC.
   
6. Ensure that you have not selected an ODBC data source (this will trigger MicroStrategy to use the additional connection string parameters to build the database instance) and click OK.
7. Click OK to close the database instance wizard.
8. In the Project Source, right-click the project and open the Project configuration.
9. Navigate to Database Instances, select the newly created database instance, and click OK. 👁 Adding the new database instance to the project.
   
10. Close MicroStrategy Developer and restart the connected MicroStrategy Intelligence Server to complete the database instance creation.

With the database instance configured, you will now be able to connect to SAP Netweaver Gateway data from the Warehouse Catalog and Data Import.

Connect to SAP Netweaver Gateway Data from the Warehouse Catalog

Once you have created a database instance based on the JDBC Driver for SAP Netweaver Gateway, you can connect to data from the Warehouse Catalog.

1. Select your project and click Schema -> Warehouse Catalog. 👁 Creating the Warehouse Catalog
   
2. In the Read Settings for the Catalog, click Settings and set the queries to retrieve the schema:
   • To retrieve the list of tables, use the following query:

     SELECT 
      * 
     FROM 
      SYS_TABLES
      

   • To retrieve the list of columns for selected tables, use the following query:

     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
      

   👁 Custom metadata queries.
   
3. Select tables to be used in the project. 👁 Selecting tables to be used in the project.
   

Using the CData JDBC Driver for SAP Netweaver Gateway in MicroStrategy, you can easily create robust visualizations and reports on SAP Netweaver Gateway data. Read our other articles on connecting to SAP Netweaver Gateway in MictroStrategy Web and connecting to SAP Netweaver Gateway in MicroStrategy Desktop for more information.

Note: Connecting using a JDBC Driver requires a 3- or 4-Tier Architecture.