Configure a Connection Profile

From the CData ribbon, click Get Data and select From SAP SuccessFactors connection/s to launch the CData Query window. To setup a new connection, you will have to click the New SAP SuccessFactors Connection button. Here you can set the connection settings, test the connection, and save the connection profile.

Connecting to SAPSuccessFactors

The CData Excel Add-In for SAP SuccessFactors communicates to SAP SuccessFactors over the OData API, which is enabled by default. If you need to provide additional permissions, see this SAP Support Site article.

You can authenticate to SAP SuccessFactors using Basic authentication, Azure AD authentication, or OAuth authentication (preferred).

Basic

To use Basic authentication, you must set a number of connection properties and you must grant access to the API.

Required Connection Properties

• AuthScheme: BASIC.
• URL: The URL of the server hosting Success Factors. Some of the servers are listed here.
• User: The account username.
• Password: The account password.
• CompanyId: Your company's unique identifier.

Be aware that in Basic authentication, after your first request to connect, SAP SuccessFactors uses cookies to reuse the session. For all subsequent connection requests, authentication is accomplished using cookies returned from SAP SuccessFactors.

Granting Access to the API

Once OData is enabled, you must grant access to the API to activate Basic Auth for a given user.

For an RBP System:

1. Navigate to Administrator Permissions > Manage Integration Tools.
2. Assign Allow Admin to Access OData API through Basic Authentication to the user.

For a User-Based System:

1. Navigate to Administrative Privileges > Integration Tools.
2. Assign Allow Admin to Access OData API Through Basic Authentication to the user.
3. Navigate to the Managing Administrative Privilege page.
4. Assign Employee Export and Employee Import to the user.

Azure AD

Azure AD is Microsoft’s multi-tenant, cloud-based directory and identity management service. It is user-based authentication that requires that you set AuthScheme to AzureAD.

Desktop Applications

CData provides an embedded OAuth application that simplifies connection to Azure AD from a Desktop application.

You can also authenticate from a desktop application using a custom OAuth application. (For further information, see Creating an Azure AD Application.) To authenticate via Azure AD, set these parameters:

• AuthScheme: AzureAD.
• Custom applications only:
  • OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
  • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
  • CallbackURL: The redirect URI you defined when you registered your custom OAuth application.

When you connect, the add-in opens SAP SuccessFactors's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application.

The add-in completes the OAuth process, obtaining an access token from SAP SuccessFactors and using it to request data. The OAuth values are saved in the path specified in OAuthSettingsLocation. These values persist across connections.

When the access token expires, the add-in refreshes it automatically.

OAuth

SAP SuccessFactors supports OAuth authentication with two grant types:

• Client grant type for SAP SuccessFactors LMS instances
• SAML-2 Bearer grant type

To enable OAuth authentication from all OAuth flows, you must create a custom OAuth application as described in Creating a Custom OAuth Application, and you must set the appropriate properties.

Note: SAP SuccessFactors does not retrieve a refresh token as part of the API response, therefore it is not surfaced. Instead, the provider uses the expiration time of the access token to detect when to initiate the process of obtaining a new token.

The following subsections describe how to authenticate to SAP SuccessFactors from three common authentication flows. For information about how to create a custom OAuth application, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application. For a complete list of connection string properties available in SAP SuccessFactors, see Connection.

Desktop Applications

To authenticate with the credentials for a custom OAuth application, you must get and refresh the OAuth access token. After you do that, you are ready to connect.

Get and Refresh the OAuth Access Token

Set the following properties:

• OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your application.
• CallbackURL: The redirect URI that was defined when you registered your custom OAuth application.
• OAuthClientSecret (Client grant type only): The client secret that was assigned when you registered your application.
• PrivateKey (SAML-2 Bearer grant type only): The path of the Private Key certificate you downloaded during the creation of your custom OAuth application OR the base64-encoded content of that certificate.

When you connect, the add-in opens SAP SuccessFactors's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application.

When the access token expires, the add-in refreshes it automatically.

Automatic refresh of the OAuth access token:

To have the add-in automatically refresh the OAuth access token, do the following:

1. Before connecting to data for the first time, set these connection parameters:
   • InitiateOAuth: REFRESH.
   • OAuthClientId: The client Id in your custom OAuth application settings.
   • OAuthAccessToken: The access token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
   • OAuthSettingsLocation: The path where you want the add-in to save the OAuth values, which persist across connections.
   • OAuthClientSecret (Client grant type only): The client secret in your custom OAuth application settings.
   • PrivateKey (SAML-2 Bearer grant type only): The path of the Private Key certificate you downloaded during the creation of your custom OAuth application OR the base64-encoded content of that certificate.
2. On subsequent data connections, set:
   • InitiateOAuth
   • OAuthSettingsLocation

Connection Properties

The Connection properties describe the various options that can be used to establish a connection.

Managing Connections

After successfully authenticating to SAP SuccessFactors you will be able to customize the data you are importing. To learn more about this, see Managing Connections.

See Also

• Querying Data: Use the data selection wizard to pull data into a spreadsheet. You can also configure scheduled data refresh here.
• Using the Excel Add-In: Find other ways to interact with SAP SuccessFactors data, such as using the available CData Excel Functions.