Consume IBM Cloud Object Storage OData Feeds in SAP Lumira

You can use the CData API Server and the ADO.NET Provider for IBM Cloud Object Storage (or any of 200+ other ADO.NET Providers) to create data visualizations based on IBM Cloud Object Storage data in SAP Lumira. The API Server enables connectivity to live data: dashboards and reports can be refreshed on demand. This article shows how to create a chart that is always up to date.

Set Up the API Server

Follow the steps below to begin producing secure IBM Cloud Object Storage OData services:

Deploy

The API Server runs on your own server. On Windows, you can deploy using the stand-alone server or IIS. On a Java servlet container, drop in the API Server WAR file. See the help documentation for more information and how-tos.

The API Server is also easy to deploy on Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2, and Heroku.

Connect to IBM Cloud Object Storage

After you deploy the API Server and the ADO.NET Provider for IBM Cloud Object Storage, provide authentication values and other connection properties needed to connect to IBM Cloud Object Storage by clicking Settings -> Connection and adding a new connection in the API Server administration console.

Register a New Instance of Cloud Object Storage

If you do not already have Cloud Object Storage in your IBM Cloud account, follow the procedure below to install an instance of SQL Query in your account:

1. Log in to your IBM Cloud account.
2. Navigate to the page, choose a name for your instance and click Create. You will be redirected to the instance of Cloud Object Storage you just created.

Connecting using OAuth Authentication

There are certain connection properties you need to set before you can connect. You can obtain these as follows:

API Key

To connect with IBM Cloud Object Storage, you need an API Key. You can obtain this as follows:

1. Log in to your IBM Cloud account.
2. Navigate to the Platform API Keys page.
3. On the middle-right corner click "Create an IBM Cloud API Key" to create a new API Key.
4. In the pop-up window, specify the API Key name and click "Create". Note the API Key as you can never access it again from the dashboard.

Cloud Object Storage CRN

If you have multiple accounts, you will need to specify the CloudObjectStorageCRN explicitly. To find the appropriate value, you can:

• Query the Services view. This will list your IBM Cloud Object Storage instances along with the CRN for each.
• Locate the CRN directly in IBM Cloud. To do so, navigate to your IBM Cloud Dashboard. In the Resource List, Under Storage, select your Cloud Object Storage resource to get its CRN.

Connecting to Data

You can now set the following to connect to data:

• InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
• ApiKey: Set this to your API key which was noted during setup.
• CloudObjectStorageCRN (Optional): Set this to the cloud object storage CRN you want to work with. While the connector attempts to retrieve this automatically, specifying this explicitly is recommended if you have more than Cloud Object Storage account.

When you connect, the connector completes the OAuth process.

1. Extracts the access token and authenticates requests.
2. Saves OAuth values in OAuthSettingsLocation to be persisted across connections.

When you configure the connection, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

You can then choose the IBM Cloud Object Storage entities you want to allow the API Server access to by clicking Settings -> Resources.

Authorize API Server Users

After determining the OData services you want to produce, authorize users by clicking Settings -> Users. The API Server uses authtoken-based authentication and supports the major authentication schemes. Access can also be restricted based on IP address; by default, only connections to the local machine are allowed. You can authenticate as well as encrypt connections with SSL.

Connect to IBM Cloud Object Storage from SAP Lumira

Follow the steps below to retrieve IBM Cloud Object Storage data into SAP Lumira. You can execute an SQL query or use the UI.

1. In SAP Lumira, click File -> New -> Query with SQL. The Add New Dataset dialog is displayed.
2. Expand the Generic section and click the Generic OData 2.0 Connector option.
3. In the Service Root URI box, enter the OData endpoint of the API Server. This URL will resemble the following: https://your-server:8032/api.rsc
4. In the User Name and Password boxes, enter the username and authtoken of an API user. These credentials will be used in HTTP Basic authentication.

5. Select entities in the tree or enter an SQL query. This article imports IBM Cloud Object Storage Objects entities.

6. When you click Connect, SAP Lumira will generate the corresponding OData request and load the results into memory. You can then use any of the data processing tools available in SAP Lumira, such as filters, aggregates, and summary functions.

Create Data Visualizations

After you have imported the data, you can create data visualizations in the Visualize room. Follow the steps below to create a basic chart.

1. In the Measures and Dimensions pane, drag measures and dimensions onto the x-axis and y-axis fields in the Visualization Tools pane. SAP Lumira automatically detects dimensions and measures from the metadata service of the API Server.

   By default, the SUM function is applied to all measures. Click the gear icon next to a measure to change the default summary.

2. In the Visualization Tools pane, select the chart type.
3. In the Chart Canvas pane, apply filters, sort by measures, add rankings, and update the chart with the current IBM Cloud Object Storage data.