Build SAP SuccessFactors-Connected Web Apps with Axios and CData Connect Cloud

Axios is a JavaScript library that allows developers to make HTTP requests to servers from a web browser or Node.js. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, you get access to live SAP SuccessFactors data for your web apps. This article shows how to connect to SAP SuccessFactors and build web apps in Axios with access to live SAP SuccessFactors data.

Connect to SAP SuccessFactors from Axios

To work with SAP SuccessFactors in Axios, we need to connect to SAP SuccessFactors from Connect Cloud, provide user access to the connection, and create OData endpoints for the SAP SuccessFactors data.

(Optional) Add a New Connect Cloud User

As needed, create Users to connect to SAP SuccessFactors through Connect Cloud.

1. Navigate to the Users page and click Invite Users
2. Enter the new user's email address and click Send to invite the user
3. You can review and edit users from the Users page

Add a Personal Access Token

If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
2. On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give your PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

Connect to SAP SuccessFactors from Connect Cloud

CData Connect Cloud uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "SAP SuccessFactors" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect 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.
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SAP SuccessFactors Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Note the CData Connect Cloud SQL API Endpoint(s)

CData Connect Cloud contains API endpoints that allow you to submit SQL queries to SAP SuccessFactors through common web requests. To work with SAP SuccessFactors data in Axios web apps, you will use the query endpoint.

Query Endpoint

With the connection and Workspace configured, you are ready to connect to SAP SuccessFactors data from Axios.

Connect to SAP SuccessFactors Data in Axios Workflows

To establish a connection from Axios to CData Connect Cloud using the OData protocol, follow these steps.

1. Create a project directory for your web app. For example: ~/connect_cloud/
2. Open a terminal, navigate the the project directory and initialize a node project using the command: npm init -y
3. Install the Axios dependency in the project using the following command: npm install axios

4. In your project directory, create a file called server.js that contains the following code. Provide your CData Connect Cloud username (e.g. [email protected]) and PAT (the PAT you created in the prerequisites). You must also provide a query for your data, such as SELECT * FROM SAPSuccessFactors1.SCHEMA.ExtAddressInfo.

   server.js code

   const axios = require('axios') const user = '[email protected]' const pat = '***********************************'; //Your API endpoint const url = 'https://cloud.cdata.com/api/query'; //Your data to be sent in the POST request const data = { "query":"SELECT * FROM SAPSuccessFactors1.SCHEMA.ExtAddressInfo" }; axios.post(url, data, { auth: { username: user, password: pat } }) .then(response => { const rows = response.data.results[0].rows; const schema = response.data.results[0].schema; //Create an array of column names const columnNames = schema.map(col => col.columnName); //Loop through each row and log the column name with its value rows.forEach(row => { const rowObject = {}; row.forEach((value, index) => { const columnName = columnNames[index]; rowObject[columnName] = value; }); console.log(rowObject); }) }) .catch(error => { console.error('Error:', error); });
5. In the terminal, execute the following command to run the server: node server.js The query results will appear: { ID: 1, VALUE: -2 } { ID: 2, VALUE: 1 } { ID: 11, VALUE: null } { ID: 3, VALUE: 2 } { ID: 4, VALUE: 5 } ...

Simplified Access to SAP SuccessFactors Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct connection to live SAP SuccessFactors data from Axios. For more information on gaining simplified access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources in cloud applications like Axios, refer to our Connect Cloud page.