Import Real-Time SAP SuccessFactors Data via JDBC in ColdFusion to Build Applications

Adobe ColdFusion is a web and mobile application development platform. It uses its own scripting language, ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML), to create data-driven websites as well as generate remote services, such as REST.

When ColdFusion is paired with the CData JDBC Driver for SAP SuccessFactors, you can link your ColdFusion web and mobile applications to operational SAP SuccessFactors data. This allows for your applications to be more robust and complete. This article details how to use the JDBC driver to create a table populated with SAP SuccessFactors data from within a ColdFusion markup file.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData JDBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live SAP SuccessFactors data. When you issue complex SQL queries to SAP SuccessFactors, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to SAP SuccessFactors and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (often SQL functions and JOIN operations). Its built-in dynamic metadata querying allows you to work with and analyze SAP SuccessFactors data using native data types.

Configuring the Connection to SAP SuccessFactors

You will need a JDBC connection string to establish a connection between Coldfusion and 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.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

java -jar cdata.jdbc.sapsuccessfactors.jar

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

Adding a Data Source and Creating a Table

After configuring the connection, follow the steps below to add the CData JDBC Driver to ColdFusion's lib directory, add a new data source, test the connection, create a ColdFusion markup file, and, finally, make a real-time connection with SAP SuccessFactors data and display it in a table written in the ColdFusion Markup Language, or CFML:

1. Copy the JDBC Driver for SAP SuccessFactors and lic file from "C:\Program Files\CData[product_name]\lib" to "C:\ColdFusion2021\cfusion\wwwroot\WEB-INF\lib".

    cdata.jdbc.sapsuccessfactors.jar
    cdata.jdbc.sapsuccessfactors.lic
    

   Note: If you do not copy the .lic file with the jar, you will see a licensing error that indicates you do not have a valid license installed. This is true for both the trial and full versions.

2. From the ColdFusion administrator interface, choose Data & Services. 👁 Selecting Data & Services
   
3. Here, we can "Add New Data Source". The data source name can be any name, provided it conforms to the ColdFusion variable naming conventions. For our JDBC driver, choose "other", then click the "Add" button. 👁 Adding Data Source Name
   
4. Next, populate the driver properties.
   • JDBC URL will need to be in the format: jdbc:sapsuccessfactors:|connectionString|.
   • A typical connection string looks like this:

     jdbc:sapsuccessfactors:User=username;Password=password;CompanyId=CompanyId;Url=https://api4.successfactors.com;

   • The Driver Class is: cdata.jdbc.sapsuccessfactors.SAPSuccessFactorsDriver
   • The Driver Name is arbitrary and simply used to recognize the data source in the ColdFusion administration console.
   👁 Populating driver properties
   
5. Now, test the connection by clicking the check mark to the left of the CDataSAP SuccessFactorsJDBC data source you just created. When the data source reports an "OK" status, it is ready for use. 👁 Testing the connection
   
6. Next, create a new ColdFusion Markup file (.cfm) and place it in the wwwroot directory ("C:\ColdFusion2021\cfusion\wwwroot") for ColdFusion.

   The following code queries the data source:

    
    <cfquery name="SAP SuccessFactorsQuery" dataSource="CDataSAP SuccessFactorsJDBC"> 
    SELECT * FROM ExtAddressInfo 
    </cfquery> 
    

   And a CFTable can be used to quickly output the table in HTML:

    
    <cftable 
    query = "SAP SuccessFactorsQuery" 
    border = "1" 
    colHeaders 
    colSpacing = "2" 
    headerLines = "2" 
    HTMLTable 
    maxRows = "500" 
    startRow = "1"> 
   
    <cfcol header="<b>address1</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="address1"/> 
   
    <cfcol header="<b>zipCode</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="zipCode"/> 
   
    ...
   
    </cftable> 
    

   Full code, including the HTML portion is available below:

    
    <html> 
    <head><title>CData Software | SAP SuccessFactors ExtAddressInfo Table Demo </title></head> 
    <body> 
    <cfoutput>#ucase("SAP SuccessFactors ExtAddressInfo Table Demo")#</cfoutput> 
    <cfquery name="SAP SuccessFactorsQuery" dataSource="CDataSAP SuccessFactorsJDBC"> 
   
    SELECT * FROM ExtAddressInfo 
   
    </cfquery> 
    <cftable 
    query = "SAP SuccessFactorsQuery" 
    border = "1" 
    colHeaders 
    colSpacing = "2" 
    headerLines = "2" 
    HTMLTable 
    maxRows = "500" 
    startRow = "1"> 
    <cfcol header="<b>address1</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="address1"/> 
   
    <cfcol header="<b>zipCode</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="zipCode"/> 
   
    ...
   
    </cftable> 
    </body> 
   
    </html> 
    

7. Finally, run the code locally in a browser at the default port of 8500. It produces a table populated with SAP SuccessFactors data! 👁 Running the code
   

As a note, the CData JDBC Drivers also support parameterized queries using the cfqueryparam element. For example:

SELECT * FROM Account WHERE name = 

Get Started Today

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for SAP SuccessFactors and start building SAP SuccessFactors-connected applications with Adobe ColdFusion. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.