Create SAP SuccessFactors LMS-Connected Visualizations in Klipfolio

Klipfolio is an online dashboard platform designed to create real-time business dashboards, whether for your team or clients. When combined with CData Connect AI, you gain immediate cloud-to-cloud access to SAP SuccessFactors LMS data to create visualizations, reports, and more. This article provides step-by-step instructions on connecting to SAP SuccessFactors LMS within Connect AI and creating visualizations using SAP SuccessFactors LMS data in Klipfolio.

CData Connect AI offers a direct cloud-to-cloud interface for SAP SuccessFactors LMS, enabling you to construct reports from real-time SAP SuccessFactors LMS data data within Klipfolio—without the need for data replication to a database natively supported by Klipfolio. While building visualizations, Klipfolio generates SQL queries to fetch data. With optimized data processing capabilities out of the box, CData Connect AI efficiently directs all supported SQL operations (such as filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to SAP SuccessFactors LMS, harnessing server-side processing to swiftly retrieve the requested SAP SuccessFactors LMS data data.

Configure SAP SuccessFactors LMS Connectivity for Klipfolio

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

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

2. Select "SAP SuccessFactors LMS" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SAP SuccessFactors LMS.

   SAP SuccessFactors LMS uses OAuth authentication. Before connecting, you must configure an OAuth application tied to your SAP SuccessFactors LMS account.

   To establish a connection, set the following properties:

   • User: Your SAP SuccessFactors LMS username.
   • CompanyId: Your SAP SuccessFactors company identifier.
   • Url: The SAP SuccessFactors API URL (e.g., https://api4.successfactors.com).
   • OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
   • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.

   See the Getting Started chapter of the help documentation for a guide to creating a custom OAuth app and using OAuth.

   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SAP SuccessFactors LMS Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the 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.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to SAP SuccessFactors LMS data from Klipfolio.

Connect to SAP SuccessFactors LMS from Klipfolio

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Klipfolio to create a new SAP SuccessFactors LMS data source.

1. Open Klipfolio
2. Click in Data Sources to add a new data source
3. Search for and select MSSQL as the Service
4. Click "Create a custom MSSQL data source"
5. Configure the data source by setting the MSSQL connection properties:
   • Host: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: 14333
   • Database: your database (e.g., SAPSuccessFactorsLMS1)
   • Driver: MS SQL
   • Username: a Connect AI user (e.g. [email protected])
   • Password: the above user's PAT
   • SQL Query: any query to retrieve data (e.g. SELECT * FROM Items )
   • Select the checkbox to "Include column headers"
   • Select the checkbox to "Use SSL/TLS"
   
6. Click "Get data" to preview the SAP SuccessFactors LMS data before building a data model.

Build a Data Model

After retrieving the data, click the checkbox to "Model your data" and click "Continue." In the new window, configure your data model.

1. Confirm that the model includes all columns you wish to work with
2. Name your model
3. (optional) Set the Description
4. Set "Header in row" to 1
5. Click the toggle to "Exclude data before row" and set the value to 2
6. Click "Save and Exit"

Create a Metric

With the data modeled, we are ready to create a Metric (or visualization) of the data to be used in the Klipfolio platform for dashboards, reporting, and more.

1. Click "Create metrics"
2. Select a Data source
3. Select a Metric value and default aggregation
4. Select Segmentation(s)
5. Select a Date & time
6. Select a Data shape
7. Configure the Display settings
8. Click Save
9. Navigate to your Metric and further configure the visualization

SQL Access to SAP SuccessFactors LMS Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a Metric built from live SAP SuccessFactors LMS data. You can add it to a new dashboard, share, and more. Easily create more data sources and new visualizations, produce reports, and more — all without replicating SAP SuccessFactors LMS data.

To get SQL data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, try CData Connect AI.