Build SAP Visualizations in Tableau Cloud

Tableau Cloud is an analytics platform fully hosted in the cloud. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to SAP data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to connect to SAP and build visualizations from SAP data in Tableau Cloud.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL Server, cloud-to-cloud interface for SAP, allowing you to easily build visualizations from live SAP data in Tableau Cloud without installing connectors or publishing worksheets and data sources from Tableau Desktop. As you build visualizations, Tableau Cloud generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to SAP, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return SAP data.

Getting Started

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Configure SAP Connectivity for Tableau Cloud

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

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

   The Java edition supports connecting to an SAP system using the JCo .jar file. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for information on using the Jco JAR file.

   The Windows edition supports connecting to SAP systems using either the librfc32.dll, the librfc32u.dll, NetWeaver, or Web Services (SOAP). Set the ConnectionType connection property to CLASSIC (librfc32.dll), CLASSIC_UNICODE (librfc32u.dll), NETWEAVER, or SOAP.

   Note: We do not distribute the librfc32.dll or other SAP assemblies. You must find them from your SAP installation and install them on your machine.

   All versions of Sync support connecting to an SAP system using Web services (SOAP). If you are using the SOAP interface you must enable SOAP access to your SAP system and set the Client, RFCUrl, SystemNumber, User, and Password properties, under the Authentication section. Additionally, set the ConnectionType to SOAP.

   See this guide on obtaining the connection properties needed to connect to any SAP system.

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

Configure SAP Endpoints for Salesforce Connect

After connecting to SAP, create a workspace and virtual dataset for your desired table(s).

1. Navigate to the Virtual Datasets page and click Add to create a new Workspace (or select an existing workspace).
2. Click Add to add new assets to the Workspace.
3. Select the SAP connection (e.g. SAPERP1) and click Next.
4. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm.
5. Make note of the OData Service URL for your workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}

With the connection and Workspace configured, you are ready to connect to SAP data from Tableau Cloud.

Visualize Live SAP Data in Tableau Cloud

The steps below outline creating a new data source in Tableau Cloud based on the virtual SAP database in Connect Cloud and building a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into Tableau Cloud, select a account, and create a new workbook.
2. In the new workbook, choose the Microsoft SQL Server Connector from the data wizard and fill in the values for your Connect Cloud instance.
   • Set Server to the OData URL for your Workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/MyWorkspace
   • Set Authentication to Username and Password
   • Set Username to your Connect Cloud username (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to a PAT for the above user
   
3. Select your newly created database and the table(s) you wish to visualize (defining relationships for JOINad tables as needed).

4. Select Dimensions and Measures and configure your visualization.

Real-Time Access to SAP Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live SAP data from your Tableau Cloud workbook. You can create new visualizations, build dashboards, and more, with no need to publish data sources and workbooks from Tableau Desktop. For more information on gaining live access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources from cloud applications like Tableau Cloud, refer to our Connect Cloud page.