Query SAP Ariba Procurement Data through ODBC in Node.js

Node.js is a JavaScript runtime environment that allows you to run JavaScript code outside of a browser. With the CData ODBC Driver for SAP Ariba Procurement, you can access live SAP Ariba Procurement data from Node.js apps and scripts. In this article, we walk through installing node-odbc and the required tools to create a simple Node.js app with access to live SAP Ariba Procurement data.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData ODBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live SAP Ariba Procurement data in Node.js. When you issue complex SQL queries from Node.js to SAP Ariba Procurement, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to SAP Ariba Procurement and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (often SQL functions and JOIN operations).

Connecting to SAP Ariba Procurement Data

If you have not already done so, provide values for the required connection properties in the data source name (DSN). You can use the built-in Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to configure the DSN. This is also the last step of the driver installation. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for a guide to using the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure a DSN.

In order to connect with SAP Ariba Procurement, set the following:

• ANID: Your Ariba Network ID.
• ANID: Specify which API you would like the provider to retrieve SAP Ariba data from. Select the Buyer or Supplier API based on your business role (possible values are PurchaseOrdersBuyerAPIV1 or PurchaseOrdersSupplierAPIV1).
• Environment: Indicate whether you are connecting to a test or production environment (possible values are TEST or PRODUCTION).

Authenticating with OAuth

After setting connection properties, you need to configure OAuth connectivity to authenticate.

• Set AuthScheme to OAuthClient.
• Register an application with the service to obtain the APIKey, OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret.

  For more information on creating an OAuth application, refer to the Help documentation.

Automatic OAuth

After setting the following, you are ready to connect:

APIKey: The Application key in your app settings. OAuthClientId: The OAuth Client Id in your app settings. OAuthClientSecret: The OAuth Secret in your app settings.

When you connect, the provider automatically completes the OAuth process:

1. The provider obtains an access token from SAP Ariba and uses it to request data.
2. The provider refreshes the access token automatically when it expires.
3. The OAuth values are saved in memory relative to the location specified in OAuthSettingsLocation.

Building node-odbc

In order to connect to SAP Ariba Procurement through the CData ODBC Driver, you need to build node-odbc manually (after installing the required tools).

Installing the Required Tools

The following commands install the tools required to build node-odbc (note the -g parameter, which installs the tools globally).

npm i -g windows-build-tools
npm i -g node-gyp

Building node-odbc

After installing the required tools, create a directory for the Node.js app and install odbc (which builds the binary for us to use in our Node.js script).

mkdir nodeodbc
cd nodeodbc
npm i -g node

Querying SAP Ariba Procurement from Node.js

With the ODBC Driver installed, a DSN Configured, and node-odbc built, we are ready to query live SAP Ariba Procurement data from a Node.js app. The sample code below connects to a specific DSN and queries the Orders table.

myscript.js

const odbc = require('odbc');

async function querySAPAribaProcurement() {
    const connection = await odbc.connect(`DSN=CData SAPAribaProcurement Source`);
    const data = await connection.query('SELECT DocumentNumber, Revision FROM Orders');
    console.log(data);
}

querySAPAribaProcurement();

Once you write the app, use node to execute the script:

node myscript.js

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData ODBC Driver for SAP Ariba Procurement and start working with your live SAP Ariba Procurement data in Node.js. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.