Publish Reports with SAP Ariba Source Data in SAP Crystal Reports



Use the Report Wizard to design a report based on up-to-date SAP Ariba Source data.

Crystal Reports has many options for offloading data processing to remote data; this enables real-time reporting. With the support for JDBC in Crystal Reports, the CData JDBC Driver for SAP Ariba Source brings this capability to Crystal Reports. This article shows how to create a report on SAP Ariba Source data that refreshes when you run the report.

Refer to the given table for the tools and their versions used in this article:

Application NameVersion
SAP Crystal Reports 2020SP3
JDBC Driver23.0.8565

Deploy the JDBC Driver

Install the CData JDBC Driver for SAP Ariba Source by including the driver JAR in the Crystal Reports classpath: Add the full file path, including the .jar, to the paths in the ClassPath element under the DataDriverCommonElement.

The default location for the CRConfig.xml file is C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\java — the path might be slightly different based on your installation. The driver JAR is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.

Add JDBC File Path into CRConfig.xml file

After you have added the JAR to the ClassPath, restart Crystal Reports.

Connect to SAP Ariba Source Data

After deploying the JDBC Driver for SAP Ariba Source, you can use the Report Wizard to add SAP Ariba Source data to a new report.

  1. Click File -> New -> Standard Report. Create a standard report.
  2. Expand the JDBC (JNDI) under Create New Connection and double-click Make a New Connection.
  3. Create a connection string using CData JDBC Driver for SAP Ariba Source.
  4. For assistance constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the SAP Ariba Source JDBC Driver. Double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command line.

    java -jar cdata.jdbc.saparibasource.jar

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

    • API: Specify which API you would like the provider to retrieve SAP Ariba data from. Select the Supplier, Sourcing Project Management, or Contract API based on your business role (possible values are SupplierDataAPIWithPaginationV4, SourcingProjectManagementAPIV2, or ContractAPIV1).
    • DataCenter: The data center where your account's data is hosted.
    • Realm: The name of the site you want to access.
    • Environment: Indicate whether you are connecting to a test or production environment (possible values are TEST or PRODUCTION).

    If you are connecting to the Supplier Data API or the Contract API, additionally set the following:

    • User: Id of the user on whose behalf API calls are invoked.
    • PasswordAdapter: The password associated with the authenticating User.

    If you're connecting to the Supplier API, set ProjectId to the Id of the sourcing project you want to retrieve data from.

    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.

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

    Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)

    When configuring the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

  5. In the wizard, enter the JDBC connection URL:

    jdbc:saparibasource:API=SupplierDataAPIWithPagination-V4;APIKey=wWVLn7WTAXrIRMAzZ6VnuEj7Ekot5jnU;Environment=SANDBOX;Realm=testRealm;AuthScheme=OAuthClient;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
  6. Set the driver class name:

    cdata.jdbc.saparibasource.SAPAribaSourceDriver Create a new JDBC (JNDI) Connection
  7. Select the tables needed in the report. Add the table.
  8. You can also link tables from the SAP Ariba Source data in SAP Crystal Reports. Click on NEXT after adding the links between tables. Add multiple tables. Link the tables.
  9. After the tables are selected, select the fields you want displayed in the report from the selected table, followed by NEXT. Add the fields to display.
  10. Select the "Group By" field to group the information on the report. Add the Group By field.
  11. Sort the groups based on summarised totals and click on NEXT. Group Sorting

You can then configure grouping, sorting, and summaries. See the following section to use the aggregate and summary to create a chart.

Create a Chart

After selecting a column to group by, the Standard Report Creation Wizard presents the option to create a chart. Follow the steps below to create a chart aggregating the SMVendorID column's values.

  1. In the Standard Report Creation Wizard, select the Bar Chart option and select the column you grouped by in the "On change of" menu.
  2. In the Show Summary menu, select the summary you created.
  3. Select filters and a template, as needed, to finish the wizard. Select a chart type.

Select a template for the report to preview the finished report and view the chart populated with your data.

Select a template type.

The Final Report

You can now see that the report contains all the fields initially specified.

The final report.

Working with Remote Data

To ensure that you see updates to the data, click File and clear the "Save Data with Report" option. As you interact with the report, for example, drilling down to hidden details, Crystal Reports executes SQL queries to retrieve the data needed to display the report. To reload data you have already retrieved, refresh or rerun the report.

You can offload processing onto the driver by hiding details elements and enabling server-side grouping. To do this, you need to select a column to group by in the report creation wizard.

  1. Click File -> Report Options and select the "Perform Grouping On Server" option. Perform Grouping On Server option.
  2. Click Report -> Section Expert and select the Details section of your report. Select the "Hide (Drill-Down OK)" option. Hide (Drill-Down OK) option.

When you preview your report with the hidden details, Crystal Reports executes a GROUP BY query. When you double-click a column in the chart to drill down to details, Crystal Reports executes a SELECT WHERE query that decreases load times by retrieving only the data needed.

At this point, you have created a SAP Crystal report built on top of live SAP Ariba Source data using SAP Crystal Reports and a CData JDBC Driver. Learn more about the CData JDBC Driver for SAP Ariba Source and download a free trial from the SAP Ariba Source JDBC Driver page. Let our Support Team know if you have any questions.

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