OData Integration

Overview

The OData integration provides a read-only connector to export fact sheet data in the form of saved searches (also referred to as bookmarks) to business intelligence (BI) tools. This integration enhances your ad-hoc reporting capabilities, allowing you to take advantage of the extensive features that various BI tools offer. Because this is only a one-way integration, importing data back into your SAP LeanIX workspace is not possible.

You can configure the OData integration with the BI tool of your choice, such as Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, SAP Analytics Cloud, and more. To configure the integration, follow the steps described in this guide.

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Note

The current integration supports OData version 4.

Configuring the OData Integration

Follow these steps:

1. In SAP LeanIX:
   1. In the Integrations section of the administration area, enable the OData integration.
   2. In the inventory, create and save searches with the required fields within the Table View. OData sharing is only available for saved searches created within the Table View.
   3. In the configuration of saved searches, enable OData sharing and set the permission to Unrestricted or Write Restricted. To learn more, see Enabling OData Sharing for a Saved Search.
   4. Obtain an API token by creating a Technical User. You need an API token to authenticate to OData API endpoints. For more information, see Create a Technical User.
2. In your BI tool:
   1. Access the OData endpoint of your workspace with an API token that you created. For more information, see OData Endpoints and Authentication.
   2. Import saved searches into your BI tool by connecting to the OData data source. For detailed instructions, refer to the documentation of your BI tool.

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Note

If you disable the OData integration in the administration area, the imported data remains shared with the BI tool as long as OData sharing is enabled for individual saved searches.

Enabling OData Sharing for a Saved Search

You can enable sharing through the OData protocol for a saved search to export fact sheet data to external systems.

Note the following:

• You can enable OData sharing only for saved searches created within the Table View. Only the columns that you selected when creating a saved search are exported through OData.
• Avoid using the dot (.) and the @ symbol in the column names because this interferes with the annotations in OData.
• When the saved search permission is set to Read & Write Restricted, OData sharing is disabled for this saved search.

To enable OData sharing for a saved search, follow these steps:

1. In the Inventory, navigate to the Searches tab in the left sidebar, then click Manage Searches at the bottom of the sidebar.

   

2. On the Manage Saved Searches page, hover over the saved search that you want to update, then click Edit.

   

3. On the saved search configuration page, select OData sharing enabled, then click Save.

   

The link icon in the OData column on the Manage Saved Searches page indicates that OData sharing is enabled for a saved search.

OData Endpoints and Authentication

The following REST API endpoints allow you to import your saved searches (referred to as bookmarks within APIs) into BI tools:

• Standard endpoint that supports common attribute names, also referred to as labels (for example, Display Name):

  https://{SUBDOMAIN}.leanix.net/services/import-export/v1/odata/BookmarkService.svc/
  

• Alternative endpoint that supports technical attribute names, also referred to as keys (for example, Application_displayName):

  https://{SUBDOMAIN}.leanix.net/services/import-export/v1/odata/BookmarkDataService.svc/
  

OData endpoints employ the Basic authentication scheme, which is widely supported by many BI tools.

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Note

Single and Multi-Select values of any given field are always displayed with their internal technical key (for example, application_category_1 as opposed to Application Category 1).

To authenticate to OData endpoints, you need an API token (apitoken). You can obtain an API token by creating a Technical User. For more information, see Technical Users.

Viewing External Content in Dashboards

To allow users to view content from your BI tool in their dashboards, do the following:

1. In SAP LeanIX, enable the Do not restrict external content option for your workspace. Alternatively, restrict external content to specific URLs. For more information, see Adjusting Settings for External Content in Dashboards.
2. In your BI tool, configure appropriate permissions to publish content to external systems without making it public to everyone.

Video Tutorial for Microsoft Power BI and Tableau

In the following video tutorial, you can learn how to enable the OData integration with Microsoft Power BI and Tableau.

Importing Data into Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft Power BI provides the OData Feed connector that allows you to import your saved searches into the tool. To learn more about the connector, refer to the Microsoft Power BI documentation.

To connect to an OData data source in Microsoft Power BI, follow these steps:

1. In the Get Data overlay, search for the OData Feed connector, then click Connect.

   

2. In the overlay that appears, select Basic, enter the URL of the OData endpoint, then click OK. To view available OData endpoints, see OData Endpoints and Authentication.

   

3. If this is your first time connecting to the OData Feed, you need to select an authentication method. In the sidebar, select Basic, then enter your authentication details:

   • User name: apitoken
   • Password: Your API token. You can obtain an API token by creating a Technical User. For more information, see Technical Users.

   

The connection should be established. You should see a list of exposed saved searches.

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Note

Due to OData limitations, the names of your saved searches are normalized.

You can load or transform the imported data as needed.

To improve stability when loading and refreshing data, disable the parallel loading of tables in Microsoft Power BI. To do so, navigate to File > Options and Settings > Options > CURRENT FILE > Data Load, and unselect Enable parallel loading of tables.

Changing Authentication Credentials for an OData Feed

If you replace the API token of your Technical User or delete the Technical User, you need to update credentials in all your integrations where the token is used.

To change credentials in Microsoft Power BI, follow these steps:

1. On the menu bar, select File, then select Options and settings.

2. Select Data source settings.

   

3. Select your domain, then click Edit Permissions.

   

4. In the overlay that appears, click Edit, then click OK.

   

5. In the overlay that appears, navigate to the Basic tab, enter your new API token, then click Save.

   

Using Dataflows in Microsoft Power BI

When importing large volumes of data into Microsoft Power BI, you might encounter issues in retrieving complete datasets. Using dataflows can help address these issues. Consider using dataflows when:

• You need to combine data from multiple sources.
• You need to transform data before loading it into reports.
• You're dealing with large datasets and need efficient methods for processing and storing the data.
• You need to regularly update your data, but only want to refresh the new or modified data, not the entire dataset.
• You want to create reusable and centralized data models for multiple reports.

To learn how to create dataflows, refer to the Microsoft documentation.

Importing Data into Tableau

To import your saved searches into Tableau, connect Tableau to an OData data source. For instructions, refer to the Tableau documentation.

In Tableau, enter the following credentials for the OData endpoint:

• Server: The URL of the OData endpoint. To view available endpoints, see OData Endpoints and Authentication.
• Authentication: Select Username and Password.
• Username: apitoken
• Password: Your API token. You can obtain an API token by creating a Technical User. For more information, see Technical Users.

The connection should be established. You should see a list of your saved searches.

You can drag and drop the exported fields of your searches within Sheets.

Importing Data into SAP Tools

If you’re using SAP tools such as SAP Analytics Cloud or SAP Datasphere, do the following:

1. Rename your saved searches to use the saved search ID as the name. You can obtain this ID by navigating to the saved search page and copying the ID from the page URL.

2. To import saved searches, use an alternative endpoint that supports technical attribute names:

   https://{SUBDOMAIN}.leanix.net/services/import-export/v1/odata/BookmarkDataService.svc/