Connect to SAP SuccessFactors Data as an External Source in Dremio

The CData JDBC Driver for SAP SuccessFactors implements JDBC Standards and allows various applications, including Dremio, to work with live SAP SuccessFactors data. Dremio is a data lakehouse platform designed to empower self-service, interactive analytics on the data lake. With the CData JDBC driver, you can include live SAP SuccessFactors data as a part of your enterprise data lake. This article describes how to connect to SAP SuccessFactors data from Dremio as an External Source.

The CData JDBC Driver enables high-speed access to live SAP SuccessFactors data in Dremio. Once you install the driver, authenticate with SAP SuccessFactors and gain immediate access to SAP SuccessFactors data within your data lake. By surfacing SAP SuccessFactors data using native data types and handling complex filters, aggregations, & other operations automatically, the CData JDBC Driver grants seamless access to SAP SuccessFactors data.

Prerequisites

This article assumes you are utilizing Docker to run Dremio. You can create a Docker container with the Dremio service using a command similar to the follow:

docker run -d --name dremio -p 9047:9047 -p 31010:31010 dremio/dremio-oss

Where dremio is the name of the container, 9047 is the container's port for the Dremio web interface and 31010 is the port that maps to the Dremio query service. dremio/dremio-oss specifies the image to use.

Build the ARP Connector

To use the CData JDBC Driver in Dremio, you need to build an Advanced Relation Pushdown (ARP) Connector. You can view the source code for the Connector on GitHub or download the ZIP file (GitHub.com) directly. Once you copy or extract the files, run the following command from the root directory of the connector (the directory containing the pom.xml file) to build the connector.

mvn clean install

NOTE: The CData ARP Connectors are build to be compiled with Java 11. Be sure to install Java 11 and use the correct version. You can update your Java version using a command similar to the following:

sudo update-alternatives --config java

Once the JAR file for the connector is built (in the target directory), you are ready to copy the ARP connector and JDBC Driver to your Dremio instance.

Installing the Connector and JDBC Driver

Install the ARP Connector to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/ and the JDBC Driver for SAP SuccessFactors to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/3rdparty. You can use commands similar to the following:

ARP Connector

docker cp PATH\TO\dremio-sapsuccessfactors-plugin-{DREMIO_VERSION}.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/

JDBC Driver for SAP SuccessFactors

docker cp PATH\TO\cdata.jdbc.sapsuccessfactors.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/3rdparty/

Connecting to SAP SuccessFactors

SAP SuccessFactors will now appear as an External Source option in Dremio. The ARP Connector built uses a JDBC URL to connect to SAP SuccessFactors data. The JDBC Driver has a built-in connection string designer that you can use (see below).

Built-in Connection String Designer

For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the SAP SuccessFactors JDBC Driver. Double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command line.

java -jar cdata.jdbc.sapsuccessfactors.jar

Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

You can authenticate to SAP Success Factors using Basic authentication or OAuth with SAML assertion.

Basic Authentication

You must provide values for the following properties to successfully authenticate to SAP Success Factors. Note that the provider will reuse the session opened by SAP Success Factors using cookies. Which means that your credentials will be used only on the first request to open the session. After that, cookies returned from SAP Success Factors will be used for authentication.

• Url: set this to the URL of the server hosting Success Factors. Some of the servers are listed in the SAP support documentation (external link).
• User: set this to the username of your account.
• Password: set this to the password of your account.
• CompanyId: set this to the unique identifier of your company.

OAuth Authentication

You must provide values for the following properties, which will be used to get the access token.

• Url: set this to the URL of the server hosting Success Factors. Some of the servers are listed in the SAP support documentation (external link).
• User: set this to the username of your account.
• CompanyId: set this to the unique identifier of your company.
• OAuthClientId: set this to the API Key that was generated in API Center.
• OAuthClientSecret: the X.509 private key used to sign SAML assertion. The private key can be found in the certificate you downloaded in Registering your OAuth Client Application.
• InitiateOAuth: set this to GETANDREFRESH.

NOTE: To use the JDBC Driver in Dremio, you will need a license (full or trial) and a Runtime Key (RTK). For more information on obtaining this license (or a trial), contact our sales team.

Add the Runtime Key (RTK) to the JDBC URL. You will end up with a JDBC URL similar to the following:

jdbc:sapsuccessfactors:RTK=5246...;User=username;Password=password;CompanyId=CompanyId;Url=https://api4.successfactors.com;

Access SAP SuccessFactors as an External Source

To add SAP SuccessFactors as an External Source, click to add a new source and select SAPSuccessFactors. Copy the JDBC URL and paste it into the New SAPSuccessFactors Source wizard.

Save the connection and you are ready to query live SAP SuccessFactors data in Dremio, easily incorporating SAP SuccessFactors data into your data lake.

More Information & Free Trial

Using the CData JDBC Driver for SAP SuccessFactors in Dremio, you can incorporate live SAP SuccessFactors data into your data lake. Check out our CData JDBC Driver for SAP SuccessFactors page for more information about connecting to SAP SuccessFactors. Download a free, 30 day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for SAP SuccessFactors and get started today.