Configure the CData JDBC Driver for SAP SuccessFactors LMS in a Connection Pool in Tomcat

The CData JDBC Drivers support standard JDBC interfaces to integrate with Web applications running on the JVM. This article details how to connect to SAP SuccessFactors LMS data from a connection pool in Tomcat.

Connect to SAP SuccessFactors LMS Data through a Connection Pool in Tomcat

1. Copy the CData JAR and CData .lic file to $CATALINA_HOME/lib. The CData JAR is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
2. Add a definition of the resource to the context. Specify the JDBC URL here.

   SAP SuccessFactors LMS uses OAuth authentication. Before connecting, you must configure an OAuth application tied to your SAP SuccessFactors LMS account.

   To establish a connection, set the following properties:

   • User: Your SAP SuccessFactors LMS username.
   • CompanyId: Your SAP SuccessFactors company identifier.
   • Url: The SAP SuccessFactors API URL (e.g., https://api4.successfactors.com).
   • OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
   • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.

   See the Getting Started chapter of the help documentation for a guide to creating a custom OAuth app and using OAuth.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.sapsuccessfactorslms.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.)
   

   You can see the JDBC URL specified in the resource definition below.

   <Resource name="jdbc/sapsuccessfactorslms" auth="Container" type="javax.sql.DataSource" driverClassName="cdata.jdbc.sapsuccessfactorslms.SAPSuccessFactorsLMSDriver" factory="org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.DataSourceFactory" url="jdbc:sapsuccessfactorslms:User=username;CompanyId=CompanyId;Url=https://api4.successfactors.com;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;" maxActive="20" maxIdle="10" maxWait="-1" />
   

   To allow a single application to access SAP SuccessFactors LMS data, add the code above to the context.xml in the application's META-INF directory.

   For a shared resource configuration, add the code above to the context.xml located in $CATALINA_BASE/conf. A shared resource configuration provides connectivity to SAP SuccessFactors LMS for all applications.

3. Add a reference to the resource to the web.xml for the application.

    SAP SuccessFactors LMS data JSP
    jdbc/SAPSuccessFactorsLMS
    javax.sql.DataSource
    Container
   
   

4. Initialize connections from the connection pool:

   Context initContext = new InitialContext();
   Context envContext = (Context)initContext.lookup("java:/comp/env");
   DataSource ds = (DataSource)envContext.lookup("jdbc/SAPSuccessFactorsLMS");
   Connection conn = ds.getConnection();
    

More Tomcat Integration

The steps above show how to connect to SAP SuccessFactors LMS data in a simple connection pooling scenario. For more use cases and information, see the JNDI Datasource How-To in the Tomcat documentation.