Analyze Live SharePoint Data in SAS Viya

SAS Viya is an analytics platform that enhances data management, machine learning, and analytics, fostering efficient decision-making and insights. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to SharePoint data for building predictive models, crafting stunning insights to make data-driven decisions, and more. This article shows how to connect to Connect Cloud from the SAS Viya cloud platform and integrate live SharePoint data into your self-service AI and analytics deployments.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL, cloud-to-cloud interface for SharePoint, allowing you to easily integrate with live SharePoint data in SAS Viya — without replicating the data. CData Connect Cloud looks exactly like a SQL Server database to SAS Viya and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to SharePoint, leveraging server-side processing to return SharePoint data quickly.

Configure SharePoint Connectivity for SAS Viya

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

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

   Set the URL property to the base SharePoint site or to a sub-site. This allows you to query any lists and other SharePoint entities defined for the site or sub-site.

   The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid SharePoint user credentials when using SharePoint On-Premise.

   If you are connecting to SharePoint Online, set the SharePointEdition to SHAREPOINTONLINE along with the User and Password connection string properties. For more details on connecting to SharePoint Online, see the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SharePoint 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 SharePoint data from SAS Viya.

Connecting to CData Connect Cloud from SAS Viya

The following steps detail the process of loading data from SharePoint into SAS Viya using the established connection in CData Connect Cloud.

1. Download and install the CData Connect Cloud JDBC driver from the Client Tools section.
2. Now, log in to SAS Viya and navigate to the Applications Menu at the top-left corner.
3. Select Develop Code and Flows from the Analytics Life Cycle topic.
4. Navigate to the Explorer tab and click on SAS Server on the left panel.
5. Follow the steps to upload the JAR file of the CData Connect JDBC driver:
   • Right-click on the "Home" directory.
   • Click on Upload files.
   • Place the JAR file in the specified location and note its file path.
6. Once done, navigate to the Libraries tab and click on Create a new library connection (on the top left corner as shown below) for the CData Connect JDBC.
7. Enter the library connection settings:
   • Connection name: enter a name for your connection
   • Library name (libref): enter a reference for your library
   • Library type: choose "SAS/ACCESS to JDBC"
8. Click on the Properties tab and set Library attributes to READONLY.
9. Click the Connection Options tab and enter the following details:
   • Hive JDBC driver's class name: cdata.jdbc.connect.ConnectDriver
   • Java CLASSPATH: enter the file path to the JAR driver file (Refer to Step 5)
10. Click on Test connection. If it succeeds, click on Save and connect.
11. Click on to add a new tab and select SAS program.
12. Fill in the code block below with your setup parameters:
    • Libref: enter the library reference you defined in Step 9.
    • ClassPath: enter the file path to the JAR driver file.
    • Username: enter your CData Connect username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect interface. For example, test@cdata.com.
    • DefaultCatalog: enter the connection configured in CData Connect Cloud that you want to query.
    • Password: enter the PAT you generated in the "Add a Personal Access Token" section.
    libname [Libref] JDBC classpath=[ClassPath] class="cdata.jdbc.connect.ConnectDriver" URL="jdbc:Connect:AuthScheme=Basic;User=[Username];DefaultCatalog=[DefaultCatalog];DefaultSchema=dbo;Password=[Password]"; proc sql; SELECT * FROM [Libref].MyTable; quit;
13. Click on Run. You can see the data load from CData Connect Cloud into SAS Viya.

Live Access to SharePoint Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to SharePoint data from SAS Viya. You can build predictive models, craft insights to make data-driven decisions, and more — all without replicating SharePoint data.

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