Build Semantic Layer Views for Cvent Data in APOS Live Data Gateway

Dibyendu Datta
Dibyendu Datta
Lead Technology Evangelist
Use the CData Connect AI and APOS Live Data Gateway to build Semantic Layer Views for Cvent data.

APOS Live Data Gateway (LDG) serves as a data connection and data transformation solution, facilitating live data connectivity and broadening data source possibilities for SAP Analytics Cloud and other SAP solutions. When integrated with CData Connect AI, users have the capability to construct semantic layer views for real-time access to Cvent data, enabling real-time analytics on Cvent in a manner akin to working with a relational database.

CData Connect AI offers a dedicated SQL Server interface for Cvent, enabling data querying directly from Cvent without the need to replicate data to a native database. With pre-optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect AI efficiently directs all supported SQL operations, including filters and JOINs, directly to Cvent. This harnesses server-side processing to swiftly retrieve the requested Cvent data.

Configure Cvent Connectivity for APOS Live Data Gateway

Connectivity to Cvent from APOS Live Data Gateway is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Cvent data from APOS Live Data Gateway, we start by creating and configuring a Cvent connection.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
    2. Adding a Connection
  2. Select "Cvent" from the Add Connection panel
    3. Selecting a data source
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Cvent.

    Before you can authenticate to Cvent, you must create a workspace and an OAuth application.

    Creating a Workspace

    To create a workspace:

    1. Sign into Cvent and navigate to App Switcher (the blue button in the upper right corner of the page) >> Admin.
    2. In the Admin menu, navigate to Integrations >> REST API.
    3. A new tab launches for Developer Management. Click on Manage API Access in the new tab.
    4. Create a Workspace and name it. Select the scopes you would like your developers to have access to. Scopes control what data domains the developer can access.
      • Choose All to allow developers to choose any scope, and any future scopes added to the REST API.
      • Choose Custom to limit the scopes developers can choose for their OAuth apps to selected scopes. To access all tables exposed by the driver, you need to set the following scopes:
        event/attendees:readevent/attendees:writeevent/contacts:read
        event/contacts:writeevent/custom-fields:readevent/custom-fields:write
        event/events:readevent/events:writeevent/sessions:delete
        event/sessions:readevent/sessions:writeevent/speakers:delete
        event/speakers:readevent/speakers:writebudget/budget-items:read
        budget/budget-items:writeexhibitor/exhibitors:readexhibitor/exhibitors:write
        survey/surveys:readsurvey/surveys:write

    Creating an OAuth Application

    After you have set up a Workspace and invited them, developers can sign up and create a custom OAuth app. See the Creating a Custom OAuth Application section in the Help documentation for more information.

    Connecting to Cvent

    After creating an OAuth application, set the following connection properties to connect to Cvent:

    • InitiateOAuth: GETANDREFRESH. Used to automatically get and refresh the OAuthAccessToken.
    • OAuthClientId: The Client ID associated with the OAuth application. You can find this on the Applications page in the Cvent Developer Portal.
    • OAuthClientSecret: The Client secret associated with the OAuth application. You can find this on the Applications page in the Cvent Developer Portal.
    Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
  4. Click Save & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Cvent Connection page and update the User-based permissions. Updating permissions

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

  1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
  2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
  3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. Creating a new PAT
  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 and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Cvent data in the APOS Live Data Gateway.

Connecting to Cvent & Creating a Semantic Layer View

After configuring the connection in CData Connect AI you are ready to connect to Cvent in the Live Data Gateway Admin tool and build a semantic layer view in the Live Data Gateway Web UI.

Configuring the Connection to Cvent

  1. Log into your APOS Live Data Gateway Manager Logging into the APOS LDG Manager
  2. If you haven't already, update your APOS LDG license file
    1. Click File -> Configurations
    2. Click on the "..." Menu for the License
    3. Select the license file from the APOS team that includes your CData Connect AI license
  3. In the APOS Live Data Gateway Manager, click "Add"
  4. In the APOS Live Data Gateway On the Connection tab, configure the connection:
    • Set Data Source to "Database"
    • Set Database to "JDBC Generic"
    • Set Connection String to a connection string similar to the following, using the name of the connection you configured earlier, e.g. 
      jdbc:sqlserver://tds.cdata.com:14333;databaseName=Cvent1
    • Set Driver Class to "com.CData.connect.Driver" (this should be set by default)
    Configuring the Connection (Salesforce is shown).
  5. Click Test Connection
  6. Click Save
  7. Give your connection a unique prefix (e.g. "cvent")
  8. Highlight the newly created connection and click File -> "Approve Users For Web UI" Approving Users For Web UI.
  9. Approve the appropriate DB users to create views and click "Save" Configuring which DB users can create views.

At this point, we are ready to build our semantic layer view in the Live Data Gateway Web UI.

Creating a Semantic Layer View

  1. In your browser, navigate to the APOS Live Data Gateway Portal
  2. Select a Connection (e.g. "cvent")
  3. Set User Name and Password to your Connect AI username and PAT .
  4. Click "Login" Connecting from the Web UI (Salesforce is shown).
  5. Once connected, click "Semantic Layer" to create a new semantic layer view
  6. Click "New Semantic Layer View" Adding a new semantic layer view.
  7. Set the Semantic Layer View Prefix and Semantic Layer View Name Setting the semantic layer view prefix and name.
  8. Click "Step 2"
  9. Select the table(s) and column(s) you wish to include in your view Selecting table(s) and column(s).
  10. Click "Step 3"
  11. Select the Measures from the available table columns Selecting the measure(s).
  12. Click "Step 5" (we skipped the "Extra Dimensions" step)
  13. Add any Variable Prompts
  14. Click "Step 6"
  15. Define any Table Joins
  16. Click "Review"
  17. Review you semantic layer view and click "Save" Saving the semantic layer view.

With the Semantic Layer View created, you are ready to access your Cvent data through the APOS Live Data Gateway, enabling real-time data connectivity to Cvent data from SAP Analytics Cloud and other SAP solutions.

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