Analyze SAP SuccessFactors Data in Infragistics Reveal

Reveal, an offering from Infragistics, serves as a data visualization tool that seamlessly integrates with CData Connect AI. Together, they empower users to deliver dynamic dashboards using real-time data from a diverse range of data sources, including SAP SuccessFactors data. In this article, we will guide you through the process of connecting to SAP SuccessFactors via Connect AI and subsequently linking Connect AI with Infragistics Reveal to construct a straightforward dashboard.

Connect to SAP SuccessFactors from Infragistics Reveal

To work with live SAP SuccessFactors data in Infragistics Reveal, we need to connect to SAP SuccessFactors from Connect AI, provide user access to the connection, and create a Workspace for the SAP SuccessFactors data.

Connect to SAP SuccessFactors from 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 SuccessFactors" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SAP SuccessFactors.

   You can authenticate to SAP Success Factors using Basic authentication or OAuth with SAML assertion.

   Basic Authentication

   You must provide values for the following properties to successfully authenticate to SAP Success Factors. Note that the provider will reuse the session opened by SAP Success Factors using cookies. Which means that your credentials will be used only on the first request to open the session. After that, cookies returned from SAP Success Factors will be used for authentication.

   • Url: set this to the URL of the server hosting Success Factors. Some of the servers are listed in the SAP support documentation (external link).
   • User: set this to the username of your account.
   • Password: set this to the password of your account.
   • CompanyId: set this to the unique identifier of your company.

   OAuth Authentication

   You must provide values for the following properties, which will be used to get the access token.

   • Url: set this to the URL of the server hosting Success Factors. Some of the servers are listed in the SAP support documentation (external link).
   • User: set this to the username of your account.
   • CompanyId: set this to the unique identifier of your company.
   • OAuthClientId: set this to the API Key that was generated in API Center.
   • OAuthClientSecret: the X.509 private key used to sign SAML assertion. The private key can be found in the certificate you downloaded in Registering your OAuth Client Application.
   • InitiateOAuth: set this to GETANDREFRESH.
   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SAP SuccessFactors 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.

Configure SAP SuccessFactors Endpoints for Infragistics Reveal

After connecting to SAP SuccessFactors, create a workspace for your desired table(s).

1. Navigate to the Workspaces page and click Add to create a new Workspace (or select an existing workspace). 👁 The Workspaces page.
   👁 Adding a new Workspace.
   
2. Click Add to add new assets to the Workspace.
3. Select the SAP SuccessFactors connection (e.g. SAPSuccessFactors1) and click Next. 👁 Selecting an Asset (Salesforce is shown).
   
4. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm. 👁 Selecting Tables (Salesforce is shown).
   
5. Make note of the OData Service URL for your workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}

With the connection, PAT, and Workspace configured, you are ready to connect to SAP SuccessFactors data from Infragistics Reveal.

Create a Dashboard in Reveal

With Connect AI configured, we can visualize SAP SuccessFactors data in Reveal.

1. Log into Reveal and click Dashboards -> New 👁 Adding a new dashboard
   
2. Click Data Sources -> OData Feed 👁 Adding a new OData data source
   
3. Specify the Connect AI OData API endpoint URL (found on the OData page): https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name} 👁 Configuring the OData URL
   
4. Select Generic Credentials and
   • Set Username to a Connect AI username (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to the PAT for the user
   👁 Configuring the credentials
   
5. Select the entity you wish to visualize 👁 Selecting an entity to visualize (Salesforce is shown.)
   
6. Select fields and choose a chart type 👁 Visualizing data in Reveal (Salesforce is shown.)
   

More Information & Free Trial

At this point, you have created a simple dashboard from live SAP SuccessFactors data. For more information on creating OData feeds from SAP SuccessFactors (and more than 100 other sources), visit the Connect AI page. Sign up for a free trial and start working live SAP SuccessFactors data in tools that consume OData APIs.