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

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 Cloud, users have the capability to construct semantic layer views for real-time access to REST data, enabling real-time analytics on REST in a manner akin to working with a relational database.

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

Configure REST Connectivity for APOS Live Data Gateway

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

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection

2. Select "REST" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to REST.

   See the Getting Started chapter in the data provider documentation to authenticate to your data source: The data provider models REST APIs as bidirectional database tables and XML/JSON files as read-only views (local files, files stored on popular cloud services, and FTP servers). The major authentication schemes are supported, including HTTP Basic, Digest, NTLM, OAuth, and FTP. See the Getting Started chapter in the data provider documentation for authentication guides.

   After setting the URI and providing any authentication values, set Format to "XML" or "JSON" and set DataModel to more closely match the data representation to the structure of your data.

   The DataModel property is the controlling property over how your data is represented into tables and toggles the following basic configurations.

   • Document (default): Model a top-level, document view of your REST data. The data provider returns nested elements as aggregates of data.
   • FlattenedDocuments: Implicitly join nested documents and their parents into a single table.
   • Relational: Return individual, related tables from hierarchical data. The tables contain a primary key and a foreign key that links to the parent document.

   See the Modeling REST Data chapter for more information on configuring the relational representation. You will also find the sample data used in the following examples. The data includes entries for people, the cars they own, and various maintenance services performed on those cars.

   
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add REST 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.

Connecting to REST & Creating a Semantic Layer View

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

Configuring the Connection to REST

1. Log into your APOS Live Data Gateway 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 Cloud 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=REST1
   • Set Driver Class to "com.CData.connect.Driver" (this should be set by default)
   
5. Click Test Connection
6. Click Save
7. Give your connection a unique prefix (e.g. "rest")
8. Highlight the newly created connection and click File -> "Approve Users For Web UI"
9. Approve the appropriate DB users to create views and click "Save"

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. "rest")
3. Set User Name and Password to your Connect Cloud username and PAT .
4. Click "Login"
5. Once connected, click "Semantic Layer" to create a new semantic layer view
6. Click "New Semantic Layer View"
7. Set the Semantic Layer View Prefix and Semantic Layer View Name
8. Click "Step 2"
9. Select the table(s) and column(s) you wish to include in your view
10. Click "Step 3"
11. Select the Measures from the available table columns
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"

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

Get CData Connect Cloud

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