Access Live SAP SuccessFactors Data in Excel 365 Online (Excel for the web)

Microsoft Excel for the web represents a cloud-native iteration of Microsoft Excel. When integrated with CData Connect Cloud, you gain immediate access to SAP SuccessFactors data directly from within Excel. This access facilitates data analysis, collaborative work, calculations, and more. This article provides a step-by-step guide on connecting to SAP SuccessFactors within your Connect Cloud instance and accessing live SAP SuccessFactors data in Excel for the web spreadsheets, whether for viewing or updating purposes.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for SAP SuccessFactors, allowing you to easily access live SAP SuccessFactors data in Excel for the web. Simply use the Connect Cloud Add-In to query live data (or write your own). Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported query operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to SAP SuccessFactors, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return SAP SuccessFactors data.

Configure SAP SuccessFactors Connectivity for Excel

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

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "SAP SuccessFactors" from the Add Connection panel
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 Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SAP SuccessFactors Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to SAP SuccessFactors data from Excel for the web.

Access Live SAP SuccessFactors Data in Excel for the web

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Cloud from Excel to access live SAP SuccessFactors data.

1. Log into Excel, create a new sheet (or open an existing one).
2. Click Insert and click Office Add-ins. (if you have already installed the Add-In, jump to step 4).
3. Search for CData Connect Cloud Add-In and install the Add-in.
4. Click Data and open the CData Connect Cloud Add-In.
5. In the Add-In panel, click Authorize to authenticate with your CData Connect Cloud instance
6. In the CData Connect Cloud panel in Excel, click Import
7. Choose a Connection (e.g. SAPSuccessFactors1), Table (e.g. ExtAddressInfo), and Columns to import
8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit
9. Click Execute to import the data

Update SAP SuccessFactors Data from Excel

In addition to viewing SAP SuccessFactors data in Excel, CData Connect Cloud also lets you update and delete SAP SuccessFactors data. Begin by importing data (as described above).

1. Update any cell or cells with changes you want to push to SAP SuccessFactors (your changes will be in red)
2. In the CData Connect Cloud Add-In panel, select Update
3. Optionally highlight the cell(s) you wish to update and select an update option ("Update All" or "Update Selected")
4. Click Execute to push the updates to SAP SuccessFactors

A notification will appear when the update is complete

Live Access to SAP SuccessFactors Data from Cloud Applications

New, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live SAP SuccessFactors data from your Excel workbook. You can add more data to your workbook for calculations, aggregations, collaboration, and more.

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