Create a Data Access Object for SAP SuccessFactors Data using JDBI

JDBI is a SQL convenience library for Java that exposes two different style APIs, a fluent style and a SQL object style. The CData JDBC Driver for SAP SuccessFactors integrates connectivity to live SAP SuccessFactors data in Java applications. By pairing these technologies, you gain simple, programmatic access to SAP SuccessFactors data. This article explains how to build a basic Data Access Object (DAO) and the accompanying code to read and write SAP SuccessFactors data.

Create a DAO for the SAP SuccessFactors ExtAddressInfo Entity

The interface below declares the desired behavior for the SQL object to create a single method for each SQL statement to be implemented.

public interface MyExtAddressInfoDAO {
 //insert new data into SAP SuccessFactors
 @SqlUpdate("INSERT INTO ExtAddressInfo (city, zipCode) values (:city, :zipCode)")
 void insert(@Bind("city") String city, @Bind("zipCode") String zipCode);

 //request specific data from SAP SuccessFactors (String type is used for simplicity)
 @SqlQuery("SELECT zipCode FROM ExtAddressInfo WHERE city = :city")
 String findzipCodeBycity(@Bind("city") String city);

 /*
 * close with no args is used to close the connection
 */
 void close();
}

Open a Connection to SAP SuccessFactors

Collect the necessary connection properties and construct the appropriate JDBC URL for connecting 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.

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

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.)

A connection string for SAP SuccessFactors will typically look like the following:

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

Use the configured JDBC URL to obtain an instance of the DAO interface. The particular method shown below will open a handle bound to the instance, so the instance needs to be closed explicitly to release the handle and the bound JDBC connection.

DBI dbi = new DBI("jdbc:sapsuccessfactors:User=username;Password=password;CompanyId=CompanyId;Url=https://api4.successfactors.com;");
MyExtAddressInfoDAO dao = dbi.open(MyExtAddressInfoDAO.class);

//do stuff with the DAO

dao.close();

Read SAP SuccessFactors Data

With the connection open to SAP SuccessFactors, simply call the previously defined method to retrieve data from the ExtAddressInfo entity in SAP SuccessFactors.

//disply the result of our 'find' method
String zipCode = dao.findzipCodeBycity("Springfield");
System.out.println(zipCode);

Write SAP SuccessFactors Data

It is also simple to write data to SAP SuccessFactors, using the previously defined method.

//add a new entry to the ExtAddressInfo entity
dao.insert(newcity, newzipCode);

Since the JDBI library is able to work with JDBC connections, you can easily produce a SQL Object API for SAP SuccessFactors by integrating with the CData JDBC Driver for SAP SuccessFactors. Download a free trial and work with live SAP SuccessFactors data in custom Java applications today.