Integrating Boomi Agentstudio with SAP Ariba Source Data via CData Connect AI

Dibyendu Datta
Dibyendu Datta
Lead Technology Evangelist
Use CData Connect AI to provide Boomi Agentstudio with secure, governed access to SAP Ariba Source data, enabling AI agents to act on live enterprise data within your integration and automation workflows.

Boomi Agentstudio is an enterprise platform for designing, orchestrating, and governing AI agents that automate tasks, enhance integration workflows, and support intelligent decision making across business processes. When you connect it with CData Connect AI, Boomi Agentstudio can securely access, query, and act on live enterprise data such as SAP Ariba Source through a standardized MCP tool interface.

CData Connect AI is a managed Model Context Protocol (MCP) platform that provides governed, real-time access to enterprise data systems. It exposes structured metadata, including catalogs, schemas, tables, and SQL querying across more than 350 data sources. With Connect AI, Boomi Agentstudio can incorporate live operational data directly into agent logic and workflow automation, eliminating the need for ETL pipelines, data replication, or custom integration code.

This article explains how to connect Boomi Agentstudio to a CData Connect AI MCP endpoint, configure access to your SAP Ariba Source or any other supported data source, and begin issuing real-time queries from within your agent-driven workflows.

Prerequisites

Step 1: Configure SAP Ariba Source connectivity for Boomi Agentstudio

For Boomi Agentstudio to access SAP Ariba Source, create a connection to SAP Ariba Source in CData Connect AI. This connection is then exposed to Boomi using the remote MCP server.

  1. Log in to Connect AI click Sources, and then click + Add Connection
  2. From the available data sources, choose SAP Ariba Source
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SAP Ariba Source

    In order to connect with SAP Ariba Source, set the following:

    • API: Specify which API you would like the provider to retrieve SAP Ariba data from. Select the Supplier, Sourcing Project Management, or Contract API based on your business role (possible values are SupplierDataAPIWithPaginationV4, SourcingProjectManagementAPIV2, or ContractAPIV1).
    • DataCenter: The data center where your account's data is hosted.
    • Realm: The name of the site you want to access.
    • Environment: Indicate whether you are connecting to a test or production environment (possible values are TEST or PRODUCTION).

    If you are connecting to the Supplier Data API or the Contract API, additionally set the following:

    • User: Id of the user on whose behalf API calls are invoked.
    • PasswordAdapter: The password associated with the authenticating User.

    If you're connecting to the Supplier API, set ProjectId to the Id of the sourcing project you want to retrieve data from.

    Authenticating with OAuth

    After setting connection properties, you need to configure OAuth connectivity to authenticate.

    • Set AuthScheme to OAuthClient.
    • Register an application with the service to obtain the APIKey, OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret.

      For more information on creating an OAuth application, refer to the Help documentation.

    Automatic OAuth

    After setting the following, you are ready to connect:

      APIKey: The Application key in your app settings. OAuthClientId: The OAuth Client Id in your app settings. OAuthClientSecret: The OAuth Secret in your app settings.

    When you connect, the provider automatically completes the OAuth process:

    1. The provider obtains an access token from SAP Ariba and uses it to request data.
    2. The provider refreshes the access token automatically when it expires.
    3. The OAuth values are saved in memory relative to the location specified in OAuthSettingsLocation.
  4. Click Create & Test
  5. Once authenticated, open the Permissions tab in the SAP Ariba Source connection and configure user-based permissions as required

Generate a Personal Access Token (PAT)

Boomi Agentstudio authenticates to Connect AI using an account email and a Personal Access Token (PAT). Creating separate PATs for each integration is recommended to maintain access control granularity.

  1. In Connect AI, select the Gear icon in the top-right to open Settings
  2. Under Access Tokens, select Create PAT
  3. Provide a descriptive name for the token and select Create
  4. Copy the token and store it securely. The PAT will only be visible during creation

With the SAP Ariba Source connection configured and a PAT generated, Boomi Agentstudio is ready to connect to SAP Ariba Source data via the CData Connect AI MCP server.

Step 2: Create a source using the CData Connect AI MCP endpoint

Start by creating a new MCP data source inside Boomi Agentstudio. This establishes a secure connection between Boomi and CData Connect AI, allowing agents to call MCP tools and work with live enterprise data.

To connect with Connect AI MCP as a source, follow the given process:

  1. Log in to Boomi.
  2. Open Services and select Agentstudio from the list.
  3. Go to the Sources tab and click Create a new source.
  4. In the Agent Designer window, open the Sources tab and choose Model Context Protocol (MCP) as the source type.
  5. On the Create MCP Source screen, enter the following Configuration details:
    • Name: Provide a name for the source
    • Details: Add a short description for the source
    • Transport Type: Streamable HTTP
    • URL: https://mcp.cloud.cdata.com/mcp
    • Authentication: Basic Authentication
    • Username: Enter your Connect AI account username
    • Password: Enter your Connect AI PAT
  6. Click Test Connection.
  7. After you establish a successful connection, click Discover Tools. Boomi lists all MCP tools exposed by CData Connect AI, including queryData, getCatalogs, getSchemas, and getTables, along with the remaining tools, in the Tools tab.
  8. Select all tools in the Discover and Select Tools section and click Continue.
  9. In the Review section, verify the details and click Save.

Boomi adds the new source to the Sources tab.

Click the Tools tab to confirm that all tools from CData Connect AI appear in the list.

Step 3: Create a new agent

Create a new agent to interact with your SAP Ariba Source data. The agent acts as the interface between your prompts and the tools exposed by Connect AI, enabling it to process queries and return intelligent responses.

  1. Go to the Agents tab and click Create New Agent.
  2. In the Agent Designer window, select Blank Template under the Agents tab.
  3. In the Profile section, enter the following details:
    • Basic Information: Specify the goal, agent name, and agent picture.
    • Agent Mode: Select either Conversational or Structured mode based on how you want the agent to respond to prompts, and configure the mode accordingly.
  4. Click Save and Continue.
  5. In the Tasks section, define the actions your agent will perform:
    1. Click + Add New Task.
    2. In the Description tab, enter the task name and description.
    3. In the Instructions tab, click + Add New Instruction and describe how the agent should use the tool within this task.
    4. In the Tools tab, click + Add New Tool and select the tools exposed by Connect AI. Click Update Selected Tool, enable Requires Approval and Data Passthrough, save the task, and click Save and Continue.

    Note: You can add up to 25 tools across all tasks.

  6. In the Guardrails section, define the rules, restrictions, and filters to ensure your agent operates securely and ethically. Add a blocked message, denied topics, word filters, and custom regex patterns as required. Click Save and Continue.
  7. In the Review section, verify all details and click Deploy to deploy the agent.

After you deploy the agent, use it to generate accurate and contextual responses to your prompts in the chat interface.

Step 4: Prompt the SAP Ariba Source data using the agent

After you create and deploy your agent, interact with your SAP Ariba Source data using natural language prompts.

Follow these steps to prompt your SAP Ariba Source data:

  1. Go to the Chat tab and select your agent from the dropdown list.
  2. Enter a prompt (for example, "How many tables are available in SAP Ariba Source?").
  3. The agent processes your prompt and returns the results.

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