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Use the API Server and SAP Business One ADO.NET Provider to Access SAP Business One Data in Microsoft PowerPivot
Use the API Server to connect to live SAP Business One data in the PowerPivot business intelligence tool.
This article will explain how to use the API Server and the ADO.NET Provider for SAP Business One (or any of 200+ other ADO.NET Providers) to provide SAP Business One data as OData services and then consume the data in Microsoft Excel's PowerPivot business intelligence tool. Follow the steps below to retrieve and edit SAP Business One data in Power Pivot.
Set Up the API Server
Follow the steps below to begin producing secure SAP Business One 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 Business One
After you deploy the API Server and the ADO.NET Provider for SAP Business One, provide authentication values and other connection properties needed to connect to SAP Business One by clicking Settings -> Connections and adding a new connection in the API Server administration console.
To authenticate to SAP Business One you must provide the Userand Passwordproperties.
To connect to data, specify Url. This is your SAP Business One Service Layer root URL.
You can then choose the SAP Business One 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 Business One 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 Business One data in Power Pivot.
