ETL SAP SuccessFactors in Oracle Data Integrator

Leverage existing skills by using the JDBC standard to read and write to SAP SuccessFactors: Through drop-in integration into ETL tools like Oracle Data Integrator (ODI), the CData JDBC Driver for SAP SuccessFactors connects real-time SAP SuccessFactors data to your data warehouse, business intelligence, and Big Data technologies.

JDBC connectivity enables you to work with SAP SuccessFactors just as you would any other database in ODI. As with an RDBMS, you can use the driver to connect directly to the SAP SuccessFactors APIs in real time instead of working with flat files.

This article walks through a JDBC-based ETL -- SAP SuccessFactors to Oracle. After reverse engineering a data model of SAP SuccessFactors entities, you will create a mapping and select a data loading strategy -- since the driver supports SQL-92, this last step can easily be accomplished by selecting the built-in SQL to SQL Loading Knowledge Module.

Install the Driver

To install the driver, copy the driver JAR and .lic file, located in the installation folder, into the ODI appropriate directory:

• UNIX/Linux without Agent: ~/.odi/oracledi/userlib
• UNIX/Linux with Agent: $ODI_HOME/odi/agent/lib
• Windows without Agent: %APPDATA%\Roaming\odi\oracledi\userlib
• Windows with Agent: %APPDATA%\Roaming\odi\agent\lib

Restart ODI to complete the installation.

Reverse Engineer a Model

Reverse engineering the model retrieves metadata about the driver's relational view of SAP SuccessFactors data. After reverse engineering, you can query real-time SAP SuccessFactors data and create mappings based on SAP SuccessFactors tables.

1. In ODI, connect to your repository and click New -> Model and Topology Objects.
2. On the Model screen of the resulting dialog, enter the following information:
   • Name: Enter SAPSuccessFactors.
   • Technology: Select Generic SQL (for ODI Version 12.2+, select Microsoft SQL Server).
   • Logical Schema: Enter SAPSuccessFactors.
   • Context: Select Global.
3. On the Data Server screen of the resulting dialog, enter the following information:
   • Name: Enter SAPSuccessFactors.
   • Driver List: Select Oracle JDBC Driver.
   • Driver: Enter cdata.jdbc.sapsuccessfactors.SAPSuccessFactorsDriver
   • URL: Enter the JDBC URL containing the connection string.

     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.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the SAP SuccessFactors JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.sapsuccessfactors.jar

     Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

     Below is a typical connection string:

     jdbc:sapsuccessfactors:User=username;Password=password;CompanyId=CompanyId;Url=https://api4.successfactors.com;
4. On the Physical Schema screen, enter the following information:
   • Name: Select from the Drop Down menu.
   • Database (Catalog): Enter CData.
   • Owner (Schema): If you select a Schema for SAP SuccessFactors, enter the Schema selected, otherwise enter SAPSuccessFactors.
   • Database (Work Catalog): Enter CData.
   • Owner (Work Schema): If you select a Schema for SAP SuccessFactors, enter the Schema selected, otherwise enter SAPSuccessFactors.
5. In the opened model click Reverse Engineer to retrieve the metadata for SAP SuccessFactors tables.

Edit and Save SAP SuccessFactors Data

After reverse engineering you can now work with SAP SuccessFactors data in ODI. To edit and save SAP SuccessFactors data, expand the Models accordion in the Designer navigator, right-click a table, and click Data. Click Refresh to pick up any changes to the data. Click Save Changes when you are finished making changes.

Create an ETL Project

Follow the steps below to create an ETL from SAP SuccessFactors. You will load ExtAddressInfo entities into the sample data warehouse included in the ODI Getting Started VM.

1. Open SQL Developer and connect to your Oracle database. Right-click the node for your database in the Connections pane and click new SQL Worksheet.

   Alternatively you can use SQLPlus. From a command prompt enter the following:

   sqlplus / as sysdba
2. Enter the following query to create a new target table in the sample data warehouse, which is in the ODI_DEMO schema. The following query defines a few columns that match the ExtAddressInfo table in SAP SuccessFactors: CREATE TABLE ODI_DEMO.TRG_EXTADDRESSINFO (ZIPCODE NUMBER(20,0),address1 VARCHAR2(255));
3. In ODI expand the Models accordion in the Designer navigator and double-click the Sales Administration node in the ODI_DEMO folder. The model is opened in the Model Editor.
4. Click Reverse Engineer. The TRG_EXTADDRESSINFO table is added to the model.
5. Right-click the Mappings node in your project and click New Mapping. Enter a name for the mapping and clear the Create Empty Dataset option. The Mapping Editor is displayed.
6. Drag the TRG_EXTADDRESSINFO table from the Sales Administration model onto the mapping.
7. Drag the ExtAddressInfo table from the SAP SuccessFactors model onto the mapping.
8. Click the source connector point and drag to the target connector point. The Attribute Matching dialog is displayed. For this example, use the default options. The target expressions are then displayed in the properties for the target columns.
9. Open the Physical tab of the Mapping Editor and click EXTADDRESSINFO_AP in TARGET_GROUP.
10. In the EXTADDRESSINFO_AP properties, select LKM SQL to SQL (Built-In) on the Loading Knowledge Module tab.

You can then run the mapping to load SAP SuccessFactors data into Oracle.