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SAP BusinessObjects BI Connection Details

Introduction

Connector Version

This documentation is based on version 23.0.8804 of the connector.

Get Started

SAP BusinessObjects BI Version Support

The connector leverages the SAPBusinessObjectsBI API to enable read-only access to SAPBusinessObjectsBI. It supports all API versions from 4.1SP6 and above.

Establish a Connection

Connect to SAPBusinessObjectsBI

To connect to your SAP BusinessObjects BI instance, you must set the following:

  • URL: The SAP BusinessObjects BI REST API URL. To discover this:
    1. Log into the Central Management Console.
    2. Choose Applications from the combo box.
    3. Select RESTful Web Service. The Central Management Console displays the access URL, which is http://{Server-Name}:6405/biprws by default.
  • User: The username of your instance.
  • Password: The password of your instance.

Important Notes

Configuration Files and Their Paths

  • All references to adding configuration files and their paths refer to files and locations on the Jitterbit agent where the connector is installed. These paths are to be adjusted as appropriate depending on the agent and the operating system. If multiple agents are used in an agent group, identical files will be required on each agent.

Advanced Features

This section details a selection of advanced features of the SAP BusinessObjects BI connector.

User Defined Views

The connector 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 connector handles TLS/SSL certificate negotiations. You can choose from various certificate formats; see the SSLServerCert property under "Connection String Options" for more information.

Proxy

To configure the connector using private agent proxy settings, select the Use Proxy Settings checkbox on the connection configuration screen.

Query Processing

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

User Defined Views

The SAP BusinessObjects BI connector allows you to define a virtual table whose contents are decided by a pre-configured query. These are called User Defined Views, which are useful in situations where you cannot directly control the query being issued to the driver, e.g. when using the driver from Jitterbit. The User Defined Views can be used to define predicates that are always applied. If you specify additional predicates in the query to the view, they are combined with the query already defined as part of the view.

There are two ways to create user defined views:

  • Create a JSON-formatted configuration file defining the views you want.
  • DDL statements.

Define Views Using a Configuration File

User Defined Views are defined in a JSON-formatted configuration file called UserDefinedViews.json. The connector 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 connector.

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

Use the UserDefinedViews connection property to specify the location of your JSON configuration file. For example:

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

Define Views Using DDL Statements

The connector is also capable of creating and altering the schema via DDL Statements such as CREATE LOCAL VIEW, ALTER LOCAL VIEW, and DROP LOCAL VIEW.

Create a View

To create a new view using DDL statements, provide the view name and query as follows:

CREATE LOCAL VIEW [MyViewName] AS SELECT * FROM Customers LIMIT 20;

If no JSON file exists, the above code creates one. The view is then created in the JSON configuration file and is now discoverable. The JSON file location is specified by the UserDefinedViews connection property.

Alter a View

To alter an existing view, provide the name of an existing view alongside the new query you would like to use instead:

ALTER LOCAL VIEW [MyViewName] AS SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE TimeModified > '3/1/2020';

The view is then updated in the JSON configuration file.

Drop a View

To drop an existing view, provide the name of an existing schema alongside the new query you would like to use instead.

DROP LOCAL VIEW [MyViewName]

This removes the view from the JSON configuration file. It can no longer be queried.

Schema for User Defined Views

User Defined Views are exposed in the UserViews schema by default. This is done to avoid the view's name clashing with an actual entity in the data model. You can change the name of the schema used for UserViews by setting the UserViewsSchemaName property.

Work with User Defined Views

For example, a SQL statement with a User Defined View called UserViews.RCustomers only lists customers in Raleigh:

SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE City = 'Raleigh';

An example of a query to the driver:

SELECT * FROM UserViews.RCustomers WHERE Status = 'Active';

Resulting in the effective query to the source:

SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE City = 'Raleigh' AND Status = 'Active';

That is a very simple example of a query to a User Defined View that is effectively a combination of the view query and the view definition. It is possible to compose these queries in much more complex patterns. All SQL operations are allowed in both queries and are combined when appropriate.

SSL Configuration

Customize the SSL Configuration

By default, the connector 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.

Data Model

The SAP BusinessObjects BI connector models SAP BusinessObjects BI universes as relational views. The API allows you by default to retrieve only 5000 records unless changes in the Universe settings.

Schemas for most database reports are defined in simple, text-based configuration files.

Views

The universes of your SAP BusinessObjects BI instance will be listed as separate views you can query against. A universe can have several 'business views'. If that's the case, each 'business view' will be listed as a separate view you can run queries against. If the universe has no business views, than all the universe's objects will be listed as columns.

For example, let's suppose we have a universe named, EFashion. And it has these objects: Year (dimension), StoreName (dimension), SalesRevenue (measure), ThisYear (filter). The SAP BusinessObjects BI connector will expose the EFashion view that will have the following columns: Year, StoreName, SalesRevenue, ThisYear (input only column). Some queries you can run:

SELECT Year, StoreName, SalesRevenue FROM EFashion WHERE ThisYear = true
SELECT Year, StoreName, SalesRevenue FROM EFashion WHERE StoreName LIKE '%boston%'
SELECT Year, StoreName, SalesRevenue FROM EFashion WHERE Year BETWEEN 2016 AND 2018 AND StoreName LIKE '%austin%'

Note

On dynamically listed views, when you run a 'SELECT *' query, only one default dimension will be selected by default. This is done to improve performance and to make the report more readable. Since a universe can have many dimensions, the report can be unreadable.

For example, in the above example, if we'd run a 'SELECT *' query, only one of the dimensions, Year or StoreName would be selected. If you want to select all dimensions, you must explicitly write them in the query.

Query with multiple flows: If you run queries that include objects that are not related to each other, even though they are in the same universe, the SAP BusinessObjects BI will generate two query flows in the background.

In that case, the SAP BusinessObjects BI connector will raise an error stating that the query is ambiguous.

Custom Schemas

You can create your own views (reports), using the CreateSchema, by providing a list of dimensions IDs and measures IDs, that will be the columns of your custom schema.

Note

If the dimension and measures you have provided generates multiple query flows, then the respective schemas will be created for each query flow.

The naming in this case will be, MyReport_Flow0, MyReport_Flow1 etc.

Supported Operators

The SAP BusinessObjects BI connector does not support client side filtering, which means that all the queries you run, must be supported by the SAP BusinessObjects BI API. Otherwise an error will be raised, stating that the query is not supported.

The supported operators will depend on the universe. The SAP BusinessObjects BI connector will dynamically retrieve the supported operators of each universe. Some of these can be: AND, OR, NOT, =, !=, <=, <, >=, >, IS, IS NOT, LIKE, NOT IN, IN.

Some examples:

SELECT StoreName, City, NameOfManager FROM EFashion WHERE SalesRevenue > 1000 AND (City = 'Houston' OR City = 'Boston')
SELECT StoreName, City, NameOfManager FROM EFashion WHERE SalesRevenue <= 1000 AND City NOT IN ('Houston', 'Boston')
SELECT StoreName, City, NameOfManager FROM EFashion WHERE City LIKE ('%ston') AND NameOfManager IS NOT NULL

Stored Procedures

Stored procedures are function-like interfaces that extend the functionality of the connector beyond simple SELECT operations with SAP BusinessObjects BI.

Stored procedures accept a list of parameters, perform their intended function, and then return any relevant response data from SAP BusinessObjects BI, along with an indication of whether the procedure succeeded or failed.

SAP BusinessObjects BI Connector Stored Procedures

Name Description
CreateSchema Creates a custom report by providing dimensions and metrics.

CreateSchema

Creates a custom report by providing dimensions and metrics.

CreateSchema

Creates a local schema file (.rsd) from an existing table or view in the data model.

The schema file is created in the directory set in the Location connection property when this procedure is executed. You can edit the file to include or exclude columns, rename columns, or adjust column datatypes.

The connector checks the Location to determine if the names of any .rsd files match a table or view in the data model. If there is a duplicate, the schema file will take precedence over the default instance of this table in the data model. If a schema file is present in Location that does not match an existing table or view, a new table or view entry is added to the data model of the connector.

Input
Name Type Required Accepts Output Streams Description
TableName String True False The name for the new table.
Dimensions String True False A comma-separated list of dimensions' Ids to include in the schema file.
Measures String True False A comma-separated list of metrics' Ids to include in the schema file.
Universe String True False The unique identifier of the universe you want to create report against.
WriteToFile String False False Wheather to write the contents of this stored procedure to a file or not (Default = true) needs to be set to false to output FileStream of FileData
Description String False False An optional description for the table.
FileStream String False True An instance of an output stream where file data is written to. Only used if OutputFolder is not set.
FileStreamIndex String False False The index of the schema file to stream into the output stream parameter
Result Set Columns
Name Type Description
FileData String If the OutputFolder input is empty.
Success String Whether or not the schema was created successfully.
SchemaFile String The generated schema file.

System Tables

You can query the system tables described in this section to access schema information, information on data source functionality, and batch operation statistics.

Schema Tables

The following tables return database metadata for SAP BusinessObjects BI:

Data Source Tables

The following tables return information about how to connect to and query the data source:

  • sys_connection_props: Returns information on the available connection properties.
  • sys_sqlinfo: Describes the SELECT queries that the connector can offload to the data source.

Query Information Tables

The following table returns query statistics for data modification queries:

  • sys_identity: Returns information about batch operations or single updates.

sys_catalogs

Lists the available databases.

The following query retrieves all databases determined by the connection string:

SELECT * FROM sys_catalogs
Columns
Name Type Description
CatalogName String The database name.

sys_schemas

Lists the available schemas.

The following query retrieves all available schemas:

SELECT * FROM sys_schemas
Columns
Name Type Description
CatalogName String The database name.
SchemaName String The schema name.

sys_tables

Lists the available tables.

The following query retrieves the available tables and views:

SELECT * FROM sys_tables
Columns
Name Type Description
CatalogName String The database containing the table or view.
SchemaName String The schema containing the table or view.
TableName String The name of the table or view.
TableType String The table type (table or view).
Description String A description of the table or view.
IsUpdateable Boolean Whether the table can be updated.

sys_tablecolumns

Describes the columns of the available tables and views.

The following query returns the columns and data types for the MyCustomReport table:

SELECT ColumnName, DataTypeName FROM sys_tablecolumns WHERE TableName='MyCustomReport'
Columns
Name Type Description
CatalogName String The name of the database containing the table or view.
SchemaName String The schema containing the table or view.
TableName String The name of the table or view containing the column.
ColumnName String The column name.
DataTypeName String The data type name.
DataType Int32 An integer indicating the data type. This value is determined at run time based on the environment.
Length Int32 The storage size of the column.
DisplaySize Int32 The designated column's normal maximum width in characters.
NumericPrecision Int32 The maximum number of digits in numeric data. The column length in characters for character and date-time data.
NumericScale Int32 The column scale or number of digits to the right of the decimal point.
IsNullable Boolean Whether the column can contain null.
Description String A brief description of the column.
Ordinal Int32 The sequence number of the column.
IsAutoIncrement String Whether the column value is assigned in fixed increments.
IsGeneratedColumn String Whether the column is generated.
IsHidden Boolean Whether the column is hidden.
IsArray Boolean Whether the column is an array.
Path String Item path on the SAP Universe.

sys_procedures

Lists the available stored procedures.

The following query retrieves the available stored procedures:

SELECT * FROM sys_procedures
Columns
Name Type Description
CatalogName String The database containing the stored procedure.
SchemaName String The schema containing the stored procedure.
ProcedureName String The name of the stored procedure.
Description String A description of the stored procedure.
ProcedureType String The type of the procedure, such as PROCEDURE or FUNCTION.

sys_procedureparameters

Describes stored procedure parameters.

The following query returns information about all of the input parameters for the SampleProcedure stored procedure:

SELECT * FROM sys_procedureparameters WHERE ProcedureName='SampleProcedure' AND Direction=1 OR Direction=2
Columns
Name Type Description
CatalogName String The name of the database containing the stored procedure.
SchemaName String The name of the schema containing the stored procedure.
ProcedureName String The name of the stored procedure containing the parameter.
ColumnName String The name of the stored procedure parameter.
Direction Int32 An integer corresponding to the type of the parameter: input (1), input/output (2), or output(4). input/output type parameters can be both input and output parameters.
DataTypeName String The name of the data type.
DataType Int32 An integer indicating the data type. This value is determined at run time based on the environment.
Length Int32 The number of characters allowed for character data. The number of digits allowed for numeric data.
NumericPrecision Int32 The maximum precision for numeric data. The column length in characters for character and date-time data.
NumericScale Int32 The number of digits to the right of the decimal point in numeric data.
IsNullable Boolean Whether the parameter can contain null.
IsRequired Boolean Whether the parameter is required for execution of the procedure.
IsArray Boolean Whether the parameter is an array.
Description String The description of the parameter.
Ordinal Int32 The index of the parameter.

sys_keycolumns

Describes the primary and foreign keys.

The following query retrieves the primary key for the MyCustomReport table:

SELECT * FROM sys_keycolumns WHERE IsKey='True' AND TableName='MyCustomReport'
Columns
Name Type Description
CatalogName String The name of the database containing the key.
SchemaName String The name of the schema containing the key.
TableName String The name of the table containing the key.
ColumnName String The name of the key column.
IsKey Boolean Whether the column is a primary key in the table referenced in the TableName field.
IsForeignKey Boolean Whether the column is a foreign key referenced in the TableName field.
PrimaryKeyName String The name of the primary key.
ForeignKeyName String The name of the foreign key.
ReferencedCatalogName String The database containing the primary key.
ReferencedSchemaName String The schema containing the primary key.
ReferencedTableName String The table containing the primary key.
ReferencedColumnName String The column name of the primary key.

sys_foreignkeys

Describes the foreign keys.

The following query retrieves all foreign keys which refer to other tables:

SELECT * FROM sys_foreignkeys WHERE ForeignKeyType = 'FOREIGNKEY_TYPE_IMPORT'
Columns
Name Type Description
CatalogName String The name of the database containing the key.
SchemaName String The name of the schema containing the key.
TableName String The name of the table containing the key.
ColumnName String The name of the key column.
PrimaryKeyName String The name of the primary key.
ForeignKeyName String The name of the foreign key.
ReferencedCatalogName String The database containing the primary key.
ReferencedSchemaName String The schema containing the primary key.
ReferencedTableName String The table containing the primary key.
ReferencedColumnName String The column name of the primary key.
ForeignKeyType String Designates whether the foreign key is an import (points to other tables) or export (referenced from other tables) key.

sys_primarykeys

Describes the primary keys.

The following query retrieves the primary keys from all tables and views:

SELECT * FROM sys_primarykeys
Columns
Name Type Description
CatalogName String The name of the database containing the key.
SchemaName String The name of the schema containing the key.
TableName String The name of the table containing the key.
ColumnName String The name of the key column.
KeySeq String The sequence number of the primary key.
KeyName String The name of the primary key.

sys_indexes

Describes the available indexes. By filtering on indexes, you can write more selective queries with faster query response times.

The following query retrieves all indexes that are not primary keys:

SELECT * FROM sys_indexes WHERE IsPrimary='false'
Columns
Name Type Description
CatalogName String The name of the database containing the index.
SchemaName String The name of the schema containing the index.
TableName String The name of the table containing the index.
IndexName String The index name.
ColumnName String The name of the column associated with the index.
IsUnique Boolean True if the index is unique. False otherwise.
IsPrimary Boolean True if the index is a primary key. False otherwise.
Type Int16 An integer value corresponding to the index type: statistic (0), clustered (1), hashed (2), or other (3).
SortOrder String The sort order: A for ascending or D for descending.
OrdinalPosition Int16 The sequence number of the column in the index.

sys_connection_props

Returns information on the available connection properties and those set in the connection string.

When querying this table, the config connection string should be used:

jdbc:cdata:sapbusinessobjectsbi:config:

This connection string enables you to query this table without a valid connection.

The following query retrieves all connection properties that have been set in the connection string or set through a default value:

SELECT * FROM sys_connection_props WHERE Value <> ''
Columns
Name Type Description
Name String The name of the connection property.
ShortDescription String A brief description.
Type String The data type of the connection property.
Default String The default value if one is not explicitly set.
Values String A comma-separated list of possible values. A validation error is thrown if another value is specified.
Value String The value you set or a preconfigured default.
Required Boolean Whether the property is required to connect.
Category String The category of the connection property.
IsSessionProperty String Whether the property is a session property, used to save information about the current connection.
Sensitivity String The sensitivity level of the property. This informs whether the property is obfuscated in logging and authentication forms.
PropertyName String A camel-cased truncated form of the connection property name.
Ordinal Int32 The index of the parameter.
CatOrdinal Int32 The index of the parameter category.
Hierarchy String Shows dependent properties associated that need to be set alongside this one.
Visible Boolean Informs whether the property is visible in the connection UI.
ETC String Various miscellaneous information about the property.

sys_sqlinfo

Describes the SELECT query processing that the connector can offload to the data source.

Discovering the Data Source's SELECT Capabilities

Below is an example data set of SQL capabilities. Some aspects of SELECT functionality are returned in a comma-separated list if supported; otherwise, the column contains NO.

Name Description Possible Values
AGGREGATE_FUNCTIONS Supported aggregation functions. AVG, COUNT, MAX, MIN, SUM, DISTINCT
COUNT Whether COUNT function is supported. YES, NO
IDENTIFIER_QUOTE_OPEN_CHAR The opening character used to escape an identifier. [
IDENTIFIER_QUOTE_CLOSE_CHAR The closing character used to escape an identifier. ]
SUPPORTED_OPERATORS A list of supported SQL operators. =, >, <, >=, <=, <>, !=, LIKE, NOT LIKE, IN, NOT IN, IS NULL, IS NOT NULL, AND, OR
GROUP_BY Whether GROUP BY is supported, and, if so, the degree of support. NO, NO_RELATION, EQUALS_SELECT, SQL_GB_COLLATE
STRING_FUNCTIONS Supported string functions. LENGTH, CHAR, LOCATE, REPLACE, SUBSTRING, RTRIM, LTRIM, RIGHT, LEFT, UCASE, SPACE, SOUNDEX, LCASE, CONCAT, ASCII, REPEAT, OCTET, BIT, POSITION, INSERT, TRIM, UPPER, REGEXP, LOWER, DIFFERENCE, CHARACTER, SUBSTR, STR, REVERSE, PLAN, UUIDTOSTR, TRANSLATE, TRAILING, TO, STUFF, STRTOUUID, STRING, SPLIT, SORTKEY, SIMILAR, REPLICATE, PATINDEX, LPAD, LEN, LEADING, KEY, INSTR, INSERTSTR, HTML, GRAPHICAL, CONVERT, COLLATION, CHARINDEX, BYTE
NUMERIC_FUNCTIONS Supported numeric functions. ABS, ACOS, ASIN, ATAN, ATAN2, CEILING, COS, COT, EXP, FLOOR, LOG, MOD, SIGN, SIN, SQRT, TAN, PI, RAND, DEGREES, LOG10, POWER, RADIANS, ROUND, TRUNCATE
TIMEDATE_FUNCTIONS Supported date/time functions. NOW, CURDATE, DAYOFMONTH, DAYOFWEEK, DAYOFYEAR, MONTH, QUARTER, WEEK, YEAR, CURTIME, HOUR, MINUTE, SECOND, TIMESTAMPADD, TIMESTAMPDIFF, DAYNAME, MONTHNAME, CURRENT_DATE, CURRENT_TIME, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, EXTRACT
REPLICATION_SKIP_TABLES Indicates tables skipped during replication.
REPLICATION_TIMECHECK_COLUMNS A string array containing a list of columns which will be used to check for (in the given order) to use as a modified column during replication.
IDENTIFIER_PATTERN String value indicating what string is valid for an identifier.
SUPPORT_TRANSACTION Indicates if the provider supports transactions such as commit and rollback. YES, NO
DIALECT Indicates the SQL dialect to use.
KEY_PROPERTIES Indicates the properties which identify the uniform database.
SUPPORTS_MULTIPLE_SCHEMAS Indicates if multiple schemas may exist for the provider. YES, NO
SUPPORTS_MULTIPLE_CATALOGS Indicates if multiple catalogs may exist for the provider. YES, NO
DATASYNCVERSION The Data Sync version needed to access this driver. Standard, Starter, Professional, Enterprise
DATASYNCCATEGORY The Data Sync category of this driver. Source, Destination, Cloud Destination
SUPPORTSENHANCEDSQL Whether enhanced SQL functionality beyond what is offered by the API is supported. TRUE, FALSE
SUPPORTS_BATCH_OPERATIONS Whether batch operations are supported. YES, NO
SQL_CAP All supported SQL capabilities for this driver. SELECT, INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE, TRANSACTIONS, ORDERBY, OAUTH, ASSIGNEDID, LIMIT, LIKE, BULKINSERT, COUNT, BULKDELETE, BULKUPDATE, GROUPBY, HAVING, AGGS, OFFSET, REPLICATE, COUNTDISTINCT, JOINS, DROP, CREATE, DISTINCT, INNERJOINS, SUBQUERIES, ALTER, MULTIPLESCHEMAS, GROUPBYNORELATION, OUTERJOINS, UNIONALL, UNION, UPSERT, GETDELETED, CROSSJOINS, GROUPBYCOLLATE, MULTIPLECATS, FULLOUTERJOIN, MERGE, JSONEXTRACT, BULKUPSERT, SUM, SUBQUERIESFULL, MIN, MAX, JOINSFULL, XMLEXTRACT, AVG, MULTISTATEMENTS, FOREIGNKEYS, CASE, LEFTJOINS, COMMAJOINS, WITH, LITERALS, RENAME, NESTEDTABLES, EXECUTE, BATCH, BASIC, INDEX
PREFERRED_CACHE_OPTIONS A string value specifies the preferred cacheOptions.
ENABLE_EF_ADVANCED_QUERY Indicates if the driver directly supports advanced queries coming from Entity Framework. If not, queries will be handled client side. YES, NO
PSEUDO_COLUMNS A string array indicating the available pseudo columns.
MERGE_ALWAYS If the value is true, The Merge Mode is forcibly executed in Data Sync. TRUE, FALSE
REPLICATION_MIN_DATE_QUERY A select query to return the replicate start datetime.
REPLICATION_MIN_FUNCTION Allows a provider to specify the formula name to use for executing a server side min.
REPLICATION_START_DATE Allows a provider to specify a replicate startdate.
REPLICATION_MAX_DATE_QUERY A select query to return the replicate end datetime.
REPLICATION_MAX_FUNCTION Allows a provider to specify the formula name to use for executing a server side max.
IGNORE_INTERVALS_ON_INITIAL_REPLICATE A list of tables which will skip dividing the replicate into chunks on the initial replicate.
CHECKCACHE_USE_PARENTID Indicates whether the CheckCache statement should be done against the parent key column. TRUE, FALSE
CREATE_SCHEMA_PROCEDURES Indicates stored procedures that can be used for generating schema files.

The following query retrieves the operators that can be used in the WHERE clause:

SELECT * FROM sys_sqlinfo WHERE Name = 'SUPPORTED_OPERATORS'

Note that individual tables may have different limitations or requirements on the WHERE clause; refer to the Data Model section for more information.

Columns
Name Type Description
NAME String A component of SQL syntax, or a capability that can be processed on the server.
VALUE String Detail on the supported SQL or SQL syntax.

sys_identity

Returns information about attempted modifications.

The following query retrieves the Ids of the modified rows in a batch operation:

SELECT * FROM sys_identity
Columns
Name Type Description
Id String The database-generated ID returned from a data modification operation.
Batch String An identifier for the batch. 1 for a single operation.
Operation String The result of the operation in the batch: INSERTED, UPDATED, or DELETED.
Message String SUCCESS or an error message if the update in the batch failed.

Advanced Configurations Properties

The advanced configurations 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. Click the links for further details.

Authentication

Property Description
URL The URL of the rest API exposed by the SAP BusinessObjects BI.
User The SAP BusinessObjects BI user account used to authenticate.
Password The password used to authenticate the user.

SSL

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

Schema

Property Description
Location A path to the directory that contains the schema files defining tables, views, and stored procedures.
BrowsableSchemas This property restricts the schemas reported to a subset of the available schemas. For example, BrowsableSchemas=SchemaA, SchemaB, SchemaC.
Tables This property restricts the tables reported to a subset of the available tables. For example, Tables=TableA, TableB, TableC.
Views Restricts the views reported to a subset of the available tables. For example, Views=ViewA, ViewB, ViewC.

Miscellaneous

Property Description
AddFolderPrefix Set whether to include the folder name as a prefix of the column name.
MaxRows Limits the number of rows returned when no aggregation or GROUP BY is used in the query. This takes precedence over LIMIT clauses.
Other These hidden properties are used only in specific use cases.
PageSize Specifies how many records the SAP BusinessObjects BI will return on a single page.
PseudoColumns This property indicates whether or not to include pseudo columns as columns to the table.
Timeout The value in seconds until the timeout error is thrown, canceling the operation.
UserDefinedViews A filepath pointing to the JSON configuration file containing your custom views.

Authentication

This section provides a complete list of authentication properties you can configure.

Property Description
URL The URL of the rest API exposed by the SAP BusinessObjects BI.
User The SAP BusinessObjects BI user account used to authenticate.
Password The password used to authenticate the user.

URL

The URL of the rest API exposed by the SAP BusinessObjects BI.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

You can find the correct URL after logging in the Central Management Console. From the combo box choose 'Applications'. After that, double-click on 'RESTful Web Service' and you'll see the access URL. By default, it is http://{SERVER-NAME}:6405/biprws.

User

The SAP BusinessObjects BI user account used to authenticate.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

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

Password

The password used to authenticate the user.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

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

SSL

This section provides a complete list of SSL properties you can configure.

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

SSLServerCert

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

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

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:

Description Example
A full PEM Certificate (example shortened for brevity) -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- MIIChTCCAe4CAQAwDQYJKoZIhv......Qw== -----END CERTIFICATE-----
A path to a local file containing the certificate C:\\cert.cer
The public key (example shortened for brevity) -----BEGIN RSA PUBLIC KEY----- MIGfMA0GCSq......AQAB -----END RSA PUBLIC KEY-----
The MD5 Thumbprint (hex values can also be either space or colon separated) ecadbdda5a1529c58a1e9e09828d70e4
The SHA1 Thumbprint (hex values can also be either space or colon separated) 34a929226ae0819f2ec14b4a3d904f801cbb150d

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

Certificates are validated as trusted by the machine based on the System's trust store. The trust store used is the 'javax.net.ssl.trustStore' value specified for the system. If no value is specified for this property, Java's default trust store is used (for example, JAVA_HOME\lib\security\cacerts).

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

Schema

This section provides a complete list of schema properties you can configure.

Property Description
Location A path to the directory that contains the schema files defining tables, views, and stored procedures.
BrowsableSchemas This property restricts the schemas reported to a subset of the available schemas. For example, BrowsableSchemas=SchemaA, SchemaB, SchemaC.
Tables This property restricts the tables reported to a subset of the available tables. For example, Tables=TableA, TableB, TableC.
Views Restricts the views reported to a subset of the available tables. For example, Views=ViewA, ViewB, ViewC.

Location

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

Data Type

string

Default Value

%APPDATA%\SAPBusinessObjectsBI Data Provider\Schema

Remarks

The path to a directory which contains the schema files for the connector (.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%\SAPBusinessObjectsBI Data Provider\Schema" with %APPDATA% being set to the user's configuration directory:

Platform %APPDATA%
Windows The value of the APPDATA environment variable
Mac ~/Library/Application Support
Linux ~/.config

BrowsableSchemas

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

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

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

Tables

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

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

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

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.

Views

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

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

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

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.

Miscellaneous

This section provides a complete list of miscellaneous properties you can configure.

Property Description
AddFolderPrefix Set whether to include the folder name as a prefix of the column name.
MaxRows Limits the number of rows returned when no aggregation or GROUP BY is used in the query. This takes precedence over LIMIT clauses.
Other These hidden properties are used only in specific use cases.
PageSize Specifies how many records the SAP BusinessObjects BI will return on a single page.
PseudoColumns This property indicates whether or not to include pseudo columns as columns to the table.
Timeout The value in seconds until the timeout error is thrown, canceling the operation.
UserDefinedViews A filepath pointing to the JSON configuration file containing your custom views.

AddFolderPrefix

Set whether to include the folder name as a prefix of the column name.

Data Type

bool

Default Value

false

Remarks

Set whether to include the folder name as a prefix of the column name.

MaxRows

Limits the number of rows returned when no aggregation or GROUP BY is used in the query. This takes precedence over LIMIT clauses.

Data Type

int

Default Value

-1

Remarks

Limits the number of rows returned when no aggregation or GROUP BY is used in the query. This takes precedence over LIMIT clauses.

Other

These hidden properties are used only in specific use cases.

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

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
Property Description
DefaultColumnSize Sets the default length of string fields when the data source does not provide column length in the metadata. The default value is 2000.
ConvertDateTimeToGMT Determines whether to convert date-time values to GMT, instead of the local time of the machine.
RecordToFile=filename Records the underlying socket data transfer to the specified file.

PageSize

Specifies how many records the SAP BusinessObjects BI will return on a single page.

Data Type

string

Default Value

10000

Remarks

Specifies how many records the SAP BusinessObjects BI will return on a single page.

PseudoColumns

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

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

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, "*=*".

Timeout

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

Data Type

int

Default Value

60

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 connector throws an exception.

UserDefinedViews

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

Data Type

string

Default Value

""

Remarks

User Defined Views are defined in a JSON-formatted configuration file called UserDefinedViews.json. The connector 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 connector.

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

Use the UserDefinedViews connection property to specify the location of your JSON configuration file. For example:

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

Note that the specified path is not embedded in quotation marks.