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Use the API Server and SAP ADO.NET Provider to Access SAP Data in Microsoft PowerPivot
Use the API Server to connect to live SAP data in the PowerPivot business intelligence tool.
This article will explain how to use the API Server and the ADO.NET Provider for SAP (or any of 200+ other ADO.NET Providers) to provide SAP data as OData services and then consume the data in Microsoft Excel's PowerPivot business intelligence tool. Follow the steps below to retrieve SAP data in Power Pivot.
About SAP Data Integration
CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from SAP. Customers use CData connectivity to:
- Access every edition of SAP, including SAP R/3, SAP NetWeaver, SAP ERP / ECC 6.0, and SAP S/4 HANA on premises data that is exposed by the RFC.
- Perform actions like sending IDoc or IDoc XML files to the server and creating schemas for functions or queries through SQL stored procedures.
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Connect optimally depending on where a customer's SAP instance is hosted.
- Customers using SAP S/4HANA cloud public edition will use SAP NetWeaver Gateway connectivity
- Customers using SAP S/4HANA private edition will use either SAP ERP or SAP NetWeaver Gateway connectivity.
While most users leverage our tools to replicate SAP data to databases or data warehouses, many also integrate live SAP data with analytics tools such as Tableau, Power BI, and Excel.
Getting Started
Set Up the API Server
Follow the steps below to begin producing secure SAP OData services:
Deploy
The API Server runs on your own server. On Windows, you can deploy using the stand-alone server or IIS. On a Java servlet container, drop in the API Server WAR file. See the help documentation for more information and how-tos.
The API Server is also easy to deploy on Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2, and Heroku.
Connect to SAP
After you deploy the API Server and the ADO.NET Provider for SAP, provide authentication values and other connection properties needed to connect to SAP by clicking Settings -> Connections and adding a new connection in the API Server administration console.
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.
You can then choose the SAP entities you want to allow the API Server access to by clicking Settings -> Resources.
Additionally, click Settings -> Server and set the Default Format to XML (Atom) for compatibility with Excel.
Authorize API Server Users
After determining the OData services you want to produce, authorize users by clicking Settings -> Users. The API Server uses authtoken-based authentication and supports the major authentication schemes. Access can also be restricted based on IP address; by default, only connections to the local machine are allowed. You can authenticate as well as encrypt connections with SSL.
Import SAP Tables in Power Pivot
Follow the steps below to import tables that can be refreshed on demand:
- In Excel, click the PowerPivot Window icon in the PowerPivot tab to open PowerPivot.
- Click Home -> Get External Data -> From Data Service -> From OData Data Feed.
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Add authentication parameters. Click Advanced and set the Integrated Security option to Basic. You will need to enter the User Id and Password of a user who has access to the CData API Server. Set the password to the user's authtoken.
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In the Base URL box, enter the OData URL of the CData API Server. For example, http://localhost:8032/api.rsc.
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Select which tables you want to import and click Finish.
You can now work with SAP data in Power Pivot.
