Create SAP SuccessFactors 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 SuccessFactors data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for SAP SuccessFactors and build reports from SAP SuccessFactors data in Bold BI.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for SAP SuccessFactors, allowing you to easily build reports from live SAP SuccessFactors 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 SuccessFactors, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested SAP SuccessFactors data.

Create a Virtual SQL Server Database for SAP SuccessFactors 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 SuccessFactors" from Available Data Sources.
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 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 SuccessFactors data from Bold BI.

Visualize Live SAP SuccessFactors Data in Bold BI

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Server from Bold BI to create a new SAP SuccessFactors 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 SuccessFactors on-demand or choose Extract to load the data into Bold BI
   • Database: Choose the database you created from the drop-down menu (sapsuccessfactorsdb)
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 SuccessFactors Data from Applications

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

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