ServiceDesk Plus Reporting and Star Schemas in OBIEE

The CData ODBC Driver for ServiceDesk Plus is a standard database driver that can integrate real-time access to ServiceDesk Plus data into your data warehouse or directly into your reporting tool. This article shows how to bypass the data warehouse and import operational ServiceDesk Plus data into Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE).

See the knowledge base for ODBC integrations with ETL tools like Informatica PowerCenter. For an ETL solution into Oracle Warehouse Builder, use the driver with the Oracle ODBC Gateway to Access ServiceDesk Plus Data as a Remote Oracle Database.

Connect to ServiceDesk Plus as an ODBC Data Source

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Using OAuth Authentication

ServiceDeskPlus uses Zoho OAuth 2.0 for secure authentication. To set up OAuth access:

1. Register your application in the Zoho Developer Console at https://api-console.zoho.com
2. Configure your redirect URI to match your application setup
3. Note your Client ID and Client Secret from the application settings

After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

• AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
• OAuthClientId: Set this to your Zoho application Client ID.
• OAuthClientSecret: Set this to your Zoho application Client Secret.
• Scope: Set this to the required ServiceDeskPlus permissions (default includes read access to requests, problems, assets, and projects).
• Domain: Set this to your ServiceDeskPlus domain
• Portal: Set this to your ServiceDeskPlus portal

Example Connection String

Profile=C:\profiles\ServiceDeskPlus.apip;ProfileSettings="Portal=itdesk;Domain=.in;Scope=SDPOnDemand.requests.READ SDPOnDemand.problems.READ SDPOnDemand.assets.READ SDPOnDemand.projects.READ";AuthScheme=OAuth;OAuthClientId=your_client_id;OAuthClientSecret=your_client_secret;

When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

Import ServiceDesk Plus Metadata

Follow the steps below to use the OBIEE Client Tools to import ServiceDesk Plus metadata into an OBIEE repository. You can then integrate ServiceDesk Plus data into your business models.

1. Open the Administration Tool and click File -> New Repository.

2. In the Connection Type menu, select ODBC 3.5 and select the CData DSN.
3. Select the metadata types you want to import under the Relational Sources option and then select ServiceDesk Plus tables. 👁 Tables to be imported into the repository. (Salesforce is shown.)
   

You can now create star schemas based on ServiceDesk Plus tables: 👁 Fact and dimension tables. (Salesforce is shown.)