Create a connection to SAP Gateway by navigating to the Connections page in the Sync App application and selecting the corresponding icon in the Add Connections panel. If the SAP Gateway icon is not available, click the Add More icon to download and install the SAP Gateway connector from the CData site.

Required properties are listed under the Settings tab. The Advanced tab lists connection properties that are not typically required.

Connecting to SAP Gateway

Set the following connection properties to access SAP Gateway tables.

• Url: Set this to the URL of your environment, or to the full URL of the service. For example, the full url might appear as: https://sapes5.sapdevcenter.com/sap/opu/odata/IWBEP/GWSAMPLE_BASIC/. In this example, the environment url would just be: https://sapes5.sapdevcenter.com. Add any additional properties using the CustomUrlParams property.
• Namespace: Set the appropriate Service Namespace. In the example above, IWBEP is the namespace. It is optional if the full url to the service is specified.
• Service: Set this to the service you want to retrieve data from. In the example above, the service is GWSAMPLE_BASIC. It is not required if the full url is specified.
• CustomUrlParams: Set this to any required additional properties that need to be included with the HTTP request, for example sap-client=001&sap-language=EN.

Authenticating to SAP Gateway

SAP Gateway allows both basic and OAuth 2.0 authentication. You can use basic authentication to connect to your own account, or you can use OAuth to enable other users to retrieve data from your service with their accounts.

Basic

In basic authentication, you use your login credentials to connect. Set the following properties:

• AuthScheme: Set this to Basic.
• User: This is the username you use to log in to SAP Gateway.
• Password: This is the password you use to log in to SAP Gateway.

OAuth

See Using OAuth Authentication for an authentication guide. In this OAuth flow, you can connect without setting any connection properties for your user credentials. Click Connect to open the SAP Gateway OAuth endpoint. Log in and grant permissions to the Sync App. The Sync App then completes the OAuth process.

API Key

To connect using an ApiKey, set the APIKey property, and you are ready to connect.

In order to acquire an APIKey, open the Developer Portal and select the Product or Service for which you have published the API. Then, click on Subscribe > Create a new Application. After filling the necessary information and creating the application, the Application Key is going to be displayed. You can copy this value into the APIKey connection property.

You may set the AuthScheme to Token to enforce the Token based Authentication scheme.

This section details a selection of advanced features of the SAP Gateway Sync App.

User Defined Views

The Sync App allows you to define virtual tables, called user defined views, whose contents are decided by a pre-configured query. These views are useful when you cannot directly control queries being issued to the drivers. See User Defined Views for an overview of creating and configuring custom views.

SSL Configuration

Use SSL Configuration to adjust how Sync App handles TLS/SSL certificate negotiations. You can choose from various certificate formats; see the SSLServerCert property under "Connection String Options" for more information.

Firewall and Proxy

Configure the Sync App for compliance with Firewall and Proxy, including Windows proxies and HTTP proxies. You can also set up tunnel connections.

Query Processing

The Sync App offloads as much of the SELECT statement processing as possible to SAP Gateway and then processes the rest of the query in memory (client-side).

See Query Processing for more information.

Logging

See Logging for an overview of configuration settings that can be used to refine CData logging. For basic logging, you only need to set two connection properties, but there are numerous features that support more refined logging, where you can select subsets of information to be logged using the LogModules connection property.

Customizing the SSL Configuration

By default, the Sync App attempts to negotiate SSL/TLS by checking the server's certificate against the system's trusted certificate store.

To specify another certificate, see the SSLServerCert property for the available formats to do so.

Connecting Through a Firewall or Proxy

HTTP Proxies

To connect through the Windows system proxy, you do not need to set any additional connection properties. To connect to other proxies, set ProxyAutoDetect to false.

In addition, to authenticate to an HTTP proxy, set ProxyAuthScheme, ProxyUser, and ProxyPassword, in addition to ProxyServer and ProxyPort.

Other Proxies

Set the following properties:

• To use a proxy-based firewall, set FirewallType, FirewallServer, and FirewallPort.
• To tunnel the connection, set FirewallType to TUNNEL.
• To authenticate, specify FirewallUser and FirewallPassword.
• To authenticate to a SOCKS proxy, additionally set FirewallType to SOCKS5.

The CData Sync App models SAP Gateway entities in relational Tables, Views, and Stored Procedures. The table definitions are dynamically obtained from the OData service you connect to. Any changes in the metadata, such as added or removed columns or changes in data type, can be loaded by reconnecting.

Tables

The Sync App models the writable entity sets and singletons described in the service metadata document as bidirectional Tables.

Views

Some OData entities can only be accessed through Navigation Properties. By default, the Sync App models navigation properties as separate views. See Views for more information on querying navigation properties.

Stored Procedures

Stored Procedures are function-like interfaces to the data source. They can be used to search, update, and modify information in the data source.

The Sync App exposes tables for every entity set and singleton defined on the OData service document. Entities on these tables may be inserted, updated, or deleted using standard SQL insert, update, or delete statements.

Executing Deep Inserts with SQL

The Sync App supports OData deep inserts, in which you simultaneously create a base entity and link it to related entities, by specifying navigation properties. To specify Navigation Properties for an entity, you create a temporary table for the navigation property and then reference the temporary table in the insert to the base table. Reference the temporary table in the appropriate navigation property column on the base table. Each navigation property column is prefixed with the word "Linked".

Note that you must define the temporary tables and insert to the base entity within the same connection.

Example: Deep Inserts in SAP Gateway

For example, consider the GWSAMPLE_BASIC service. On GWSAMPLE_BASIC, there is a SalesOrder table. When creating a SalesOrder, you must specify a new SalesOrderLineItem and an existing BusinessPartner. To do so, you can specify the following navigation properties.

Creating Temporary Tables

Insert the related entities into temporary tables that correspond to each navigation property. You can specify an existing entity's primary key or you can insert a new entity.

• SalesOrderLineItems: The following statements add two SalesOrderLineItems to the SalesOrder:
  

  INSERT INTO SalesOrderLineItems#TEMP (ProductID, Quantity) VALUES ('P001', 15)
  
  INSERT INTO SalesOrderLineItems#TEMP (ProductID, Quantity) VALUES ('P002', 10)

• BusinessPartners: The following statement specifies the existing BusinessPartner:
  

  INSERT INTO BusinessPartners#TEMP (BusinessPartnerID) 
  VALUES ('BP001')

Note: BusinessPartner can also be specified via the CustomerID property directly on the SalesOrder. This example is not using that column due to the possibility that a suitable foreign key may not always be available.

The CData Sync App will assume that the BusinessPartner already exists and will only link to the existing references since only the primary keys was specified. When more than just the primary key is defined, such as the example for SalesOrderLines, the CData Sync App will attempt to create new entries - triggering the deep insert.

Inserting the Entity

In the INSERT statement for the base entity, reference the temporary tables in the LinkedToLineItems and LinkedToBusinessPartner columns:

INSERT INTO SalesOrders (Note, LinkedToLineItems, LinkedToBusinessPartner) 
VALUES ('New sales order', 'SalesOrderLineItems#TEMP', 'BusinessPartners#TEMP')

Modeling Navigation Properties

By default, the Sync App models Navigation Properties as separate views. The views are named in the format ParentTable_NavigationProperty.

Querying Navigation Properties

For an example of working with a navigation property as a view, consider the GWSAMPLE_BASIC service. The SalesOrder entity has the ToLineItems navigation property. The CData Sync App will display a view called SalesOrders_ToLineItems. Retrieving data from SalesOrders_ToLineItems will display the SalesOrderLineItems objects associated with a given SalesOrder. The SalesOrders_ToLineItems view has a primary key made up of the Id of the parent entity and the Id of the related entity.

Note that the GWSAMPLE_BASIC sample service also contains foreign keys directly on each entity, such as a SalesOrderID directly on the SalesOrderLineItems table. In this case, the same effect can be achieved by simply retrieving data from the SalesOrderLineItems table directly. However, it is not a requirement in OData to have these foreign keys, nor is it a guarantee that each navigation property will be exposed individually as thier own table. Since there is no way of knowing beforehand what might be exposed on its own endpoint, the CData Sync App will display both the view and the table. In general, it is best to use Tables when available, and views only when necessary (ie: not table is displayed, or no foreign keys can be used to identify relationships).

In OData, a navigation property is a property on an entity that is itself either a single entity or list of entities.

A single-entity navigation property signifies a one-to-one relationship. For example, consider the GWSAMPLE_BASIC SAP Gateway endpoint. The ProductSet contains a ToSupplier navigation property, which references a single BusinessPartner entity.

An entity set navigation property signifies a one-to-many relationship. For example, consider the GWSAMPLE_BASIC SAP Gateway endpoint. The ProductSet contains a ToSalesOrderLineItems navigation property, which references many SalesOrderLineItem objects.

Working with Navigation Properties Relationally

Navigation properties in OData link related entities. Similarly, in a relational database, a foreign key serves to link tables. For example, the SalesOrderLineItem record contains the ProductID column, which uniquely identifies what Product the SalesOrderLineItem is using.

Select

It can be used to retrieve associated entites. See Views for more information on querying navigation properties.

Insert

The Sync App supports OData deep inserts. See Tables for more information on specifying navigation properties when you create an entity.

The connection string properties are the various options that can be used to establish a connection. This section provides a complete list of the options you can configure in the connection string for this provider. Click the links for further details.

Authentication

OAuth

SSL

Firewall

Proxy

Logging

Schema

Miscellaneous

This section provides a complete list of the Authentication properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

The type of authentication to use when connecting to SAP Gateway.

Remarks

• Auto: Lets the driver decide automatically based on the other connection properties you have set.
• OAuth: Set this to perform OAuth authentication.
• Basic: Set this to use BASIC user / password authentication.
• Token: Set this to authenticate using an APIKey.

Set this to the URL your SAP Gateway environment or to the full URL of the OData service. Any additional properties must be added using the CustomUrlParams property.

Remarks

Set this to the URL your SAP Gateway environment or to the full URL of the OData service. Any additional properties must be added using the CustomUrlParams property.

Specify the service namespace you want to retrieve data from. This is required if the service is not specified in the URL.

Remarks

Specify the namespace you want to retrieve data from. For example, in the external OData service, http://services.odata.org/Northwind/Northwind.svc/ , 'Northwind' is the Service Namespace. This is required if the service is not specified in the URL.

Specify the service you want to retrieve data from. This is required if the service is not specified in the URL.

Remarks

Specify the service you want to retrieve data from. This is required if the service is not specified in the URL.

The SAP Gateway user account used to authenticate.

Remarks

Together with Password, this field is used to authenticate against the SAP Gateway server.

The password used to authenticate the user.

Remarks

The User and Password are together used to authenticate with the server.

Set this to the key of the application you have created. If you set this, User and Password are not used for authentication.

Remarks

Set this to the key of the application you have created. If you set this, User and Password are not used for authentication.

This section provides a complete list of the OAuth properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

The client Id assigned when you register your application with an OAuth authorization server.

Remarks

As part of registering an OAuth application, you will receive the OAuthClientId value, sometimes also called a consumer key, and a client secret, the OAuthClientSecret.

The client secret assigned when you register your application with an OAuth authorization server.

Remarks

As part of registering an OAuth application, you will receive the OAuthClientId, also called a consumer key. You will also receive a client secret, also called a consumer secret. Set the client secret in the OAuthClientSecret property.

The permission scopes in space separated values. This is required when authenticating via OAuth2.0 flow.

Remarks

The permission scopes you have configured when creating the service user for the OAuth 2.0 client, in space separated values. This is required when authenticating via OAuth2.0 flow.

This section provides a complete list of the SSL properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

The certificate to be accepted from the server when connecting using TLS/SSL.

Remarks

If using a TLS/SSL connection, this property can be used to specify the TLS/SSL certificate to be accepted from the server. Any other certificate that is not trusted by the machine is rejected.

This property can take the following forms:

If not specified, any certificate trusted by the machine is accepted.

Use '*' to signify to accept all certificates. Note that this is not recommended due to security concerns.

This section provides a complete list of the Firewall properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

The protocol used by a proxy-based firewall.

Remarks

This property specifies the protocol that the Sync App will use to tunnel traffic through the FirewallServer proxy. Note that by default, the Sync App connects to the system proxy; to disable this behavior and connect to one of the following proxy types, set ProxyAutoDetect to false.

To connect to HTTP proxies, use ProxyServer and ProxyPort. To authenticate to HTTP proxies, use ProxyAuthScheme, ProxyUser, and ProxyPassword.

The name or IP address of a proxy-based firewall.

Remarks

This property specifies the IP address, DNS name, or host name of a proxy allowing traversal of a firewall. The protocol is specified by FirewallType: Use FirewallServer with this property to connect through SOCKS or do tunneling. Use ProxyServer to connect to an HTTP proxy.

Note that the Sync App uses the system proxy by default. To use a different proxy, set ProxyAutoDetect to false.

The TCP port for a proxy-based firewall.

Remarks

This specifies the TCP port for a proxy allowing traversal of a firewall. Use FirewallServer to specify the name or IP address. Specify the protocol with FirewallType.

The user name to use to authenticate with a proxy-based firewall.

Remarks

The FirewallUser and FirewallPassword properties are used to authenticate against the proxy specified in FirewallServer and FirewallPort, following the authentication method specified in FirewallType.

A password used to authenticate to a proxy-based firewall.

Remarks

This property is passed to the proxy specified by FirewallServer and FirewallPort, following the authentication method specified by FirewallType.

This section provides a complete list of the Proxy properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

This indicates whether to use the system proxy settings or not. This takes precedence over other proxy settings, so you'll need to set ProxyAutoDetect to FALSE in order use custom proxy settings.

Remarks

This takes precedence over other proxy settings, so you'll need to set ProxyAutoDetect to FALSE in order use custom proxy settings.

To connect to an HTTP proxy, see ProxyServer. For other proxies, such as SOCKS or tunneling, see FirewallType.

The hostname or IP address of a proxy to route HTTP traffic through.

Remarks

The hostname or IP address of a proxy to route HTTP traffic through. The Sync App can use the HTTP, Windows (NTLM), or Kerberos authentication types to authenticate to an HTTP proxy.

If you need to connect through a SOCKS proxy or tunnel the connection, see FirewallType.

By default, the Sync App uses the system proxy. If you need to use another proxy, set ProxyAutoDetect to false.

The TCP port the ProxyServer proxy is running on.

Remarks

The port the HTTP proxy is running on that you want to redirect HTTP traffic through. Specify the HTTP proxy in ProxyServer. For other proxy types, see FirewallType.

The authentication type to use to authenticate to the ProxyServer proxy.

Remarks

This value specifies the authentication type to use to authenticate to the HTTP proxy specified by ProxyServer and ProxyPort.

Note that the Sync App will use the system proxy settings by default, without further configuration needed; if you want to connect to another proxy, you will need to set ProxyAutoDetect to false, in addition to ProxyServer and ProxyPort. To authenticate, set ProxyAuthScheme and set ProxyUser and ProxyPassword, if needed.

The authentication type can be one of the following:

• BASIC: The Sync App performs HTTP BASIC authentication.
• DIGEST: The Sync App performs HTTP DIGEST authentication.
• NEGOTIATE: The Sync App retrieves an NTLM or Kerberos token based on the applicable protocol for authentication.
• PROPRIETARY: The Sync App does not generate an NTLM or Kerberos token. You must supply this token in the Authorization header of the HTTP request.

If you need to use another authentication type, such as SOCKS 5 authentication, see FirewallType.

A user name to be used to authenticate to the ProxyServer proxy.

Remarks

The ProxyUser and ProxyPassword options are used to connect and authenticate against the HTTP proxy specified in ProxyServer.

You can select one of the available authentication types in ProxyAuthScheme. If you are using HTTP authentication, set this to the user name of a user recognized by the HTTP proxy. If you are using Windows or Kerberos authentication, set this property to a user name in one of the following formats:

user@domain
domain\user

A password to be used to authenticate to the ProxyServer proxy.

Remarks

This property is used to authenticate to an HTTP proxy server that supports NTLM (Windows), Kerberos, or HTTP authentication. To specify the HTTP proxy, you can set ProxyServer and ProxyPort. To specify the authentication type, set ProxyAuthScheme.

If you are using HTTP authentication, additionally set ProxyUser and ProxyPassword to HTTP proxy.

If you are using NTLM authentication, set ProxyUser and ProxyPassword to your Windows password. You may also need these to complete Kerberos authentication.

For SOCKS 5 authentication or tunneling, see FirewallType.

By default, the Sync App uses the system proxy. If you want to connect to another proxy, set ProxyAutoDetect to false.

The SSL type to use when connecting to the ProxyServer proxy.

Remarks

This property determines when to use SSL for the connection to an HTTP proxy specified by ProxyServer. This value can be AUTO, ALWAYS, NEVER, or TUNNEL. The applicable values are the following:

A semicolon separated list of destination hostnames or IPs that are exempt from connecting through the ProxyServer .

Remarks

The ProxyServer is used for all addresses, except for addresses defined in this property. Use semicolons to separate entries.

Note that the Sync App uses the system proxy settings by default, without further configuration needed; if you want to explicitly configure proxy exceptions for this connection, you need to set ProxyAutoDetect = false, and configure ProxyServer and ProxyPort. To authenticate, set ProxyAuthScheme and set ProxyUser and ProxyPassword, if needed.

This section provides a complete list of the Logging properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

Core modules to be included in the log file.

Remarks

Only the modules specified (separated by ';') will be included in the log file. By default all modules are included.

See the Logging page for an overview.

This section provides a complete list of the Schema properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

A path to the directory that contains the schema files defining tables, views, and stored procedures.

Remarks

The path to a directory which contains the schema files for the Sync App (.rsd files for tables and views, .rsb files for stored procedures). The folder location can be a relative path from the location of the executable. The Location property is only needed if you want to customize definitions (for example, change a column name, ignore a column, and so on) or extend the data model with new tables, views, or stored procedures.

If left unspecified, the default location is "%APPDATA%\\CData\\SAPGateway Data Provider\\Schema" with %APPDATA% being set to the user's configuration directory:

This property restricts the schemas reported to a subset of the available schemas. For example, BrowsableSchemas=SchemaA,SchemaB,SchemaC.

Remarks

Listing the schemas from databases can be expensive. Providing a list of schemas in the connection string improves the performance.

This property restricts the tables reported to a subset of the available tables. For example, Tables=TableA,TableB,TableC.

Remarks

Listing the tables from some databases can be expensive. Providing a list of tables in the connection string improves the performance of the Sync App.

This property can also be used as an alternative to automatically listing views if you already know which ones you want to work with and there would otherwise be too many to work with.

Specify the tables you want in a comma-separated list. Each table should be a valid SQL identifier with any special characters escaped using square brackets, double-quotes or backticks. For example, Tables=TableA,[TableB/WithSlash],WithCatalog.WithSchema.`TableC With Space`.

Note that when connecting to a data source with multiple schemas or catalogs, you will need to provide the fully qualified name of the table in this property, as in the last example here, to avoid ambiguity between tables that exist in multiple catalogs or schemas.

Restricts the views reported to a subset of the available tables. For example, Views=ViewA,ViewB,ViewC.

Remarks

Listing the views from some databases can be expensive. Providing a list of views in the connection string improves the performance of the Sync App.

This property can also be used as an alternative to automatically listing views if you already know which ones you want to work with and there would otherwise be too many to work with.

Specify the views you want in a comma-separated list. Each view should be a valid SQL identifier with any special characters escaped using square brackets, double-quotes or backticks. For example, Views=ViewA,[ViewB/WithSlash],WithCatalog.WithSchema.`ViewC With Space`.

Note that when connecting to a data source with multiple schemas or catalogs, you will need to provide the fully qualified name of the table in this property, as in the last example here, to avoid ambiguity between tables that exist in multiple catalogs or schemas.

Boolean determining whether or not to use SAP labels.

Remarks

Boolean determining whether or not to use SAP labels.

If set to true, the labels you have configured in your account for the OData properties, will serve as column names. Otherwise, the name of the property will be the column name.

This section provides a complete list of the Miscellaneous properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

The custom query string to be included in the request.

Remarks

The CustomUrlParams allow you to specify custom query string parameters that are included with the HTTP request. The parameters must be encoded as a query string in the form field1=value1&field2=value2&field3=value3. The values in the query string must be URL encoded.

The data format to retrieve data in. Select either XML or JSON.

Remarks

The data format to retrieve data in. Possible values are JSON and XML. If not specified, XML will be set by default.

Limits the number of rows returned rows when no aggregation or group by is used in the query. This helps avoid performance issues at design time.

Remarks

Limits the number of rows returned rows when no aggregation or group by is used in the query. This helps avoid performance issues at design time.

These hidden properties are used only in specific use cases.

Remarks

The properties listed below are available for specific use cases. Normal driver use cases and functionality should not require these properties.

Specify multiple properties in a semicolon-separated list.

Integration and Formatting

The maximum number of results to return per page from SAP Gateway.

Remarks

The Pagesize property affects the maximum number of results to return per page from SAP Gateway. Setting a higher value may result in better performance at the cost of additional memory allocated per page consumed.

This property indicates whether or not to include pseudo columns as columns to the table.

Remarks

This setting is particularly helpful in Entity Framework, which does not allow you to set a value for a pseudo column unless it is a table column. The value of this connection setting is of the format "Table1=Column1, Table1=Column2, Table2=Column3". You can use the "*" character to include all tables and all columns; for example, "*=*".

The value in seconds until the timeout error is thrown, canceling the operation.

Remarks

If Timeout = 0, operations do not time out. The operations run until they complete successfully or until they encounter an error condition.

If Timeout expires and the operation is not yet complete, the Sync App throws an exception.

A filepath pointing to the JSON configuration file containing your custom views.

Remarks

User Defined Views are defined in a JSON-formatted configuration file called UserDefinedViews.json. The Sync App automatically detects the views specified in this file.

You can also have multiple view definitions and control them using the UserDefinedViews connection property. When you use this property, only the specified views are seen by the Sync App.

This User Defined View configuration file is formatted as follows:

• Each root element defines the name of a view.
• Each root element contains a child element, called query, which contains the custom SQL query for the view.

For example:

{
	"MyView": {
		"query": "SELECT * FROM SampleTable_1 WHERE MyColumn = 'value'"
	},
	"MyView2": {
		"query": "SELECT * FROM MyTable WHERE Id IN (1,2,3)"
	}
}

"UserDefinedViews", "C:\\Users\\yourusername\\Desktop\\tmp\\UserDefinedViews.json"