Create SAP SuccessFactors-Connected Nintex Workflows

Nintex Workflow Cloud is a cloud-based platform where you can design workflows to automate simple or complex processes using drag-and-drop interactions — without writing any code. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to SAP SuccessFactors data for business applications. This article shows how to create a virtual database for SAP SuccessFactors in Connect Cloud and build a simple workflow from SAP SuccessFactors data in Nintex.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure, cloud-to-cloud interface for SAP SuccessFactors, allowing you to build workflows from live SAP SuccessFactors data in Nintex Workflow Cloud — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Nintex allows you to access data directly using SQL queries. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to SAP SuccessFactors, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested SAP SuccessFactors data.

Configure SAP SuccessFactors Connectivity for Nintex

Connectivity to SAP SuccessFactors from Nintex is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with SAP SuccessFactors data from Nintex, 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.

Add a Personal Access Token

If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
2. On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give your PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to SAP SuccessFactors data from Nintex Workflow Cloud.

Connect to SAP SuccessFactors from Nintex

The steps below outline creating a new connection to SAP SuccessFactors data from Nintex (via Connect Cloud).

1. Log into Nintex Workflow Cloud
2. In the Connections tab, click "Add new"
3. Select "Microsoft SQL Server" as the connector and click "Connect"
4. In the SQL Server connection wizard, set the following properties:
   • Connection Name: a Connect Cloud
   • Username: a Connect Cloud username (e.g. user@mydomain.com)
   • Password: the Connect Cloud user's PAT
   • Database Host: tds.cdata.com
   • Database Name: the SAP SuccessFactors connection (a.g., SAPSuccessFactors1)
5. Click "Connect"
6. Configure the connection permissions and click "Save permissions"

Create a Simple SAP SuccessFactors Workflow

With the connection to CData Connect Cloud configured, we are ready to build a simple workflow to access SAP SuccessFactors data. Start by clicking the "Create workflow" button.

Configure the Start Event Action

1. Click the start event task and select the "Form" event
2. Click "Design form"
3. Drag a "Text - Long" element onto the Form and click the element to configure it
   • Set "Title" to "Enter SQL query"
   • Set "Required" to true
4. Drag a "Text - Short" element onto the Form and click the element to configure it
   • Set "Title" to "Enter desired result column"
   • Set "Required" to true

Configure an "Execute a Query" Action

1. Add an "Execute a query" action after the "Start event: Form" action and click to configure the action
2. Set "SQL Script" to the "Enter SQL Query" variable from the "Start event" action
3. Set "Column to retrieve" to the "Enter desired result column" variable from the "Start event" action
4. Set "Retrieved column" to a new variable (a.g., "values")

Configure a "Send an Email" Action

1. Add a "Send an email" action after the "Execute a query" action and click to configure the action
2. Set the "Recipient email address"
3. Set the "Subject"
4. Set the "Message body" to the variable created for the retrieved column

Once you configure the actions, click "Save," name the Workflow, and click "Save" again. You now have a simple workflow that will query SAP SuccessFactors using SQL and sand an email with the results.

To learn more about live data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, check out the CData Connect Cloud page. Sign up for a free trial and reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.