Create SAP HANA XS Advanced Dashboards in Bold BI

Bold BI allows you to create, share, and collaborate on interactive BI dashboards. When paired with CData Connect Server, you get instant access to SAP HANA XS Advanced data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for SAP HANA XS Advanced and build reports from SAP HANA XS Advanced data in Bold BI.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for SAP HANA XS Advanced, allowing you to easily build reports from live SAP HANA XS Advanced data in Bold BI — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. As you build visualizations, Bold BI generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Server pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to SAP HANA XS Advanced, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested SAP HANA XS Advanced data.

Create a Virtual SQL Server Database for SAP HANA XS Advanced Data

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

1. Login to Connect Server and click Connections.
2. Select "SAP HANA XS Advanced" from Available Data Sources.
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SAP HANA XS Advanced.

   SAP HANA XSA uses the OAuth authentication standard. Before connecting, it is necessary to establish an SAP HANA XSA OData Service. See the OAuth section in the Help documentation for a guide.

4. Click Save Changes
5. Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions.

With the virtual database created, you are ready to connect to SAP HANA XS Advanced data from Bold BI.

Visualize Live SAP HANA XS Advanced Data in Bold BI

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Server from Bold BI to create a new SAP HANA XS Advanced data source and build a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into your Bold BI instance, click the data sources tab, create a new data source, and choose the SQL Server connector.
2. Choose the basic configuration and set the connection properties:
   • Name: Name your connection
   • Server name: Your Connect Server instance (CONNECT_SERVER_URL)
   • Port: 1433
   • Username: Your Connect Server username
   • Password: Your Connect Server password
   • Mode: Choose Live to query SAP HANA XS Advanced on-demand or choose Extract to load the data into Bold BI
   • Database: Choose the database you created from the drop-down menu (saphanaxsadb)
3. Click Connect
4. Select the table to visualize and drag it onto the workspace.
5. Select a visualization style and add it to the report.
6. Click the gear icon for the visualization to configure the visualization properties and assign columns to the visualization.

SQL Access to SAP HANA XS Advanced Data from Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live SAP HANA XS Advanced data from your Bold BI workbook. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating SAP HANA XS Advanced data.

To get SQL data access to 200+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your applications, see the CData Connect page.