Create Reports from SAP ByDesign Data in Looker Studio

Looker Studio, formerly known as Google Data Studio, empowers users to craft customized reports featuring data visualizations that can be shared with clients while reflecting your brand identity. When combined with CData Connect Cloud, you gain immediate cloud-to-cloud access to SAP ByDesign data to create visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article provides step-by-step instructions on establishing a virtual database for SAP ByDesign and generating reports from SAP ByDesign data within Looker Studio.

CData Connect Cloud offers a seamless cloud-to-cloud interface tailored for SAP ByDesign, making it straightforward to construct reports directly from live SAP ByDesign data within Looker Studio without the need for data replication. As you create visualizations, Looker Studio generates queries to retrieve data. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect Cloud efficiently channels all supported query operations, including filters, JOINs, and more, directly to SAP ByDesign. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly provide the requested SAP ByDesign data.

Configure SAP ByDesign Connectivity for Looker Studio

Connectivity to SAP ByDesign from Looker Studio is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with SAP ByDesign data from Looker Studio, we start by creating and configuring a SAP ByDesign connection.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "SAP ByDesign" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SAP ByDesign.

   Set the following connection properties to connect to SAP ByDesign.

   • Url: Set this to the Url of your SAP ByDesign site. For example, https://test.sapbydesign.com
   • User: Set this to the username of your account.
   • Password: Set this to the password of your account.
   • CustomService or AnalyticsService: Only one of these must be specified. If you have a custom service you want to retrieve data from, specify CustomService. If you want to retrieve the reports of a analytical service, specify AnalyticsService.
     If neither is specified, 'cc_home_analytics.svc' will used as a default for the AnalyticsService property. If you are not sure what service to specify, you can always query the Services view to list available services.
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SAP ByDesign Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to SAP ByDesign data from Looker Studio.

Visualize Live SAP ByDesign Data from Looker Studio

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Cloud from Looker Studio to create a new SAP ByDesign data source and build a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into Looker Studio, click data sources, create a new data source, and choose CData Connect Cloud Connector.
2. Click Authorize and allow access to your Google account.
3. Click Authorize to authenticate with your CData Connect Cloud instance
4. In the CData Connect Cloud Connector in Looker Studio select a Connection (e.g. SAPByDesign1) and click Next
5. Select a Table (e.g. [Inventory Balance]) or use a Custom Query and click Connect to continue
6. If needed, modify columns, click Create Report, and add the data source to the report.
7. Select a visualization style and add it to the report.
8. Select Dimensions and Measures to customize your visualization.

Live Access to SAP ByDesign Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live SAP ByDesign data from your Looker Studio workbook. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating SAP ByDesign data.

Try CData Connect Cloud and get real-time data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.