Build SAP-Connected Dashboards in Redash

Redash lets you connect and query your data sources, build dashboards to visualize data and share them with your company. When paired with CData Connect Server, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to SAP data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for SAP and build visualizations from SAP data in Redash.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for SAP, allowing you to easily build reports from live SAP data in Redash — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. As you build visualizations, Redash generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Server pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to SAP, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested SAP data.

Create a Virtual SQL Server Database for SAP Data

CData Connect Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.

1. Login to Connect Server and click Connections.
2. Select "SAP" from Available Data Sources.
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SAP.

   You can connect to SAP systems using either librfc32.dll, librfc32u.dll, NetWeaver, or Web Services (SOAP). Set the ConnectionType connection property to CLASSIC (librfc32.dll), CLASSIC_UNICODE (librfc32u.dll), NETWEAVER, or SOAP.

   If you are using the SOAP interface, set the Client, RFCUrl, SystemNumber, User, and Password properties, under the Authentication section.

   Otherwise, set Host, User, Password, Client, and SystemNumber.

   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.

   For more information, see this guide on obtaining the connection properties needed to connect to any SAP system.

4. Click Save Changes
5. Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions.

With the virtual database created, you are ready to connect to SAP data from Redash.

Visualize SAP Data in Redash

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

Create a New Data Source

1. Log into Redash, click on your profile and click "Data Sources"
2. Click the " New Data Source" button
3. Select "Microsoft SQL Server" as the Data Source Type
4. On the configuration tab, set the following properties:
   • Name: Name the data source (e.g. SAP (CData Connect))
   • Host: The full URL to your CData Connect instance (e.g. https://connect_server_url)
   • Port: The port of the CData Connect SQL Server endpoint (e.g. 1433)
   • User: A CData Connect user
   • Password: The password for the above user
   • Database name: The name of the virtual database for SAP (e.g. SAPERP1)
   • Click the checkbox to Use SSQL
5. Click Create
6. Click the "Test Connection" button to ensure you have configured the connection properly

With the new Data Source created, we are ready to visualize our SAP data.

Create a SAP Data Visualization

1. Click Create -> New Query
2. Select the newly created Data Source (you can explore the data structure in the New Query wizard)
3. Write a SQL statement to retrieve the data, for example:
   SELECT MANDT, MBRSH FROM MARA
4. Click the "Execute" button to load SAP data into Redash via CData Connect
5. Use the Visualization Editor to create and analyze graphs from SAP data
6. You can schedule the query to refresh and update the visualization periodically

SQL Access to SAP Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to SAP data from Redash. You can create new visualizations, build dashboards, and more. For more information on gaining SQL access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources from cloud applications like Redash, refer to our Connect Server page.