Access Live SAP SuccessFactors Data in TIBCO Data Virtualization

TIBCO Data Virtualization (TDV) is an enterprise data virtualization solution that orchestrates access to multiple and varied data sources. When paired with the SAP SuccessFactors Tibco DV Adapter, you get federated access to live SAP SuccessFactors data directly within TIBCO Data Virtualization. This article explains how to deploy an adapter and create a new data source based on SAP SuccessFactors.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData TIBCO DV Adapter offers unmatched performance for interacting with live SAP SuccessFactors data. When you issue complex SQL queries to SAP SuccessFactors, the adapter pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to SAP SuccessFactors. Its built-in dynamic metadata querying allows you to work with and analyze SAP SuccessFactors data using native data types.

Deploy the SAP SuccessFactors TIBCO DV Adapter

1. In a console, navigate to the bin folder in the TDV Server installation directory. If there is a current version of the adapter installed, you will need to undeploy it.

   .\server_util.bat -server localhost -user admin -password ******** -undeploy -version 1 -name SAPSuccessFactors
   

2. Extract the CData TIBCO DV Adapter to a local folder and deploy the JAR file (tdv.sapsuccessfactors.jar) to the server from the extract location.

   .\server_util.bat -server localhost -user admin -password ******** -deploy -package /PATH/TO/tdv.sapsuccessfactors.jar
   

You may need to restart the server to ensure the new JAR file is loaded properly, which can be accomplished by running the composite.bat script located at: C:\Program Files\TIBCO\TDV Server <version>\bin. Note that reauthenticating to the TDV Studio is required after restarting the server.

Sample Restart Call

.\composite.bat monitor restart

Once you deploy the adapter, you can create a new data source in TDV Studio for SAP SuccessFactors.

Create a SAP SuccessFactors Data Source in TDV Studio

With the SAP SuccessFactors Tibco DV Adapter, you can easily create a data source for SAP SuccessFactors and introspect the data source to add resources to TDV.

Create the Data Source

1. Right-click on the folder you wish to add the data source to and select New -> New Data Source
2. Scroll until you find the adapter (e.g. SAP SuccessFactors) and click Next
3. Name the data source (e.g. CData SAP SuccessFactors Source)
4. Fill in the required connection properties

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.
👁 Filling in Connection Information (Salesforce is shown.)

5. Click Create & Close.

Introspect the Data Source

Once the data source is created, you can introspect the data source by right-clicking and selecting Open. In the dashboard, click Add/Remove Resources and select the Tables, Views, and Stored Procedures to include as part of the data source. Click Next and Finish to add the selected SAP SuccessFactors tables, views, and stored procedures as resources.

👁 Introspecting the Data Source (Salesforce is shown.)

After creating and introspecting the data source, you are ready to work with SAP SuccessFactors data in TIBCO Data Virtualization just like you would any other relational data source. You can create views, query using SQL, publish the data source, and more.