Create an SAP BusinessObjects Universe on the CData ODBC Driver for PingOne



Provide connectivity to PingOne data through an SAP BusinessObjects universe.

This article shows how to create and publish an SAP BusinessObjects universe on the CData ODBC Driver for PingOne. You will connect to PingOne data from the Information Design Tool as well as the Web Intelligence tool.

Connect to PingOne as an ODBC Data Source

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

To connect to PingOne, configure these properties:

  • Region: The region where the data for your PingOne organization is being hosted.
  • AuthScheme: The type of authentication to use when connecting to PingOne.
  • Either WorkerAppEnvironmentId (required when using the default PingOne domain) or AuthorizationServerURL, configured as described below.

Configuring WorkerAppEnvironmentId

WorkerAppEnvironmentId is the ID of the PingOne environment in which your Worker application resides. This parameter is used only when the environment is using the default PingOne domain (auth.pingone). It is configured after you have created the custom OAuth application you will use to authenticate to PingOne, as described in Creating a Custom OAuth Application in the Help documentation.

First, find the value for this property:

  1. From the home page of your PingOne organization, move to the navigation sidebar and click Environments.
  2. Find the environment in which you have created your custom OAuth/Worker application (usually Administrators), and click Manage Environment. The environment's home page displays.
  3. In the environment's home page navigation sidebar, click Applications.
  4. Find your OAuth or Worker application details in the list.
  5. Copy the value in the Environment ID field. It should look similar to:
    WorkerAppEnvironmentId='11e96fc7-aa4d-4a60-8196-9acf91424eca'

Now set WorkerAppEnvironmentId to the value of the Environment ID field.

Configuring AuthorizationServerURL

AuthorizationServerURL is the base URL of the PingOne authorization server for the environment where your application is located. This property is only used when you have set up a custom domain for the environment, as described in the PingOne platform API documentation. See Custom Domains.

Authenticating to PingOne with OAuth

PingOne supports both OAuth and OAuthClient authentication. In addition to performing the configuration steps described above, there are two more steps to complete to support OAuth or OAuthCliet authentication:

  • Create and configure a custom OAuth application, as described in Creating a Custom OAuth Application in the Help documentation.
  • To ensure that the driver can access the entities in Data Model, confirm that you have configured the correct roles for the admin user/worker application you will be using, as described in Administrator Roles in the Help documentation.
  • Set the appropriate properties for the authscheme and authflow of your choice, as described in the following subsections.

OAuth (Authorization Code grant)

Set AuthScheme to OAuth.

Desktop Applications

Get and Refresh the OAuth Access Token

After setting the following, you are ready to connect:

  • InitiateOAuth: GETANDREFRESH. To avoid the need to repeat the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken each time you connect, use InitiateOAuth.
  • OAuthClientId: The Client ID you obtained when you created your custom OAuth application.
  • OAuthClientSecret: The Client Secret you obtained when you created your custom OAuth application.
  • CallbackURL: The redirect URI you defined when you registered your custom OAuth application. For example: https://localhost:3333

When you connect, the driver opens PingOne's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application. The driver then completes the OAuth process:

  1. The driver obtains an access token from PingOne and uses it to request data.
  2. The OAuth values are saved in the location specified in OAuthSettingsLocation, to be persisted across connections.

The driver refreshes the access token automatically when it expires.

For other OAuth methods, including Web Applications, Headless Machines, or Client Credentials Grant, refer to the Help documentation.

When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

Create an ODBC Connection to PingOne Data

This section shows how to create a connection to the PingOne ODBC data source in the Information Design Tool. After you create a connection, you can analyze data or create a BusinessObjects universe.

  1. Right-click your project and click New -> New Relational Connection.

  2. In the wizard that is displayed, enter a name for the connection.
  3. Select Generic -> Generic ODBC datasource -> ODBC Drivers and select the DSN.

  4. Finish the wizard with the default values for connection pooling and custom parameters.

Analyze PingOne Data in the Information Design Tool

In the Information Design Tool, you can use both published and local ODBC connections to browse and query data.

  1. In the Local Projects view, double-click the connection (the .cnx file) to open the PingOne data source.

  2. On the Show Values tab, you can load table data and enter SQL queries. To view table data, expand the node for the table, right-click the table, and click Show Values. Values will be displayed in the Raw Data tab.

  3. On the Analysis tab, you can drag and drop columns onto the axes of a chart.

Publish the Local Connection

To publish the universe to the CMS, you additionally need to publish the connection.

  1. In the Local Projects view, right-click the connection and click Publish Connection to a Repository.

  2. Enter the host and port of the repository and connection credentials.

  3. Select the folder where the connection will be published.

  4. In the success dialog that results, click Yes to create a connection shortcut.

Create a Universe on the ODBC Driver for PingOne

You can follow the steps below to create a universe on the ODBC driver for PingOne. The universe in this example will be published to a repository, so it uses the published connection created in the previous step.

  1. In the Information Design Tool, click File->New Universe.

  2. Select your project.

  3. Select the option to create the universe on a relational data source.

  4. Select the shortcut to the published connection.

  5. Enter a name for the Data Foundation.

  6. Import tables and columns that you want to access as objects.

  7. Enter a name for the Business Layer.

Publish the Universe

You can follow the steps below to publish the universe to the CMS.

  1. In the Local Projects view, right-click the business layer and click Publish -> To a Repository.

  2. In the Publish Universe dialog, enter any integrity checks before importing.

  3. Select or create a folder on the repository where the universe will be published.

Query PingOne Data in Web Intelligence

You can use the published universe to connect to PingOne in Web Intelligence.

  1. Open Web Intelligence from the BusinessObjects launchpad and create a new document.

  2. Select the Universe option for the data source.

  3. Select the PingOne universe. This opens a Query Panel. Drag objects to the Result Objects pane to use them in the query.

Ready to get started?

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The PingOne ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from PingOne, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access PingOne data like you would a database - read, write, and update PingOne 0, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.