What are the detailed steps to expose IDT objects as Odata service?

[iangwilt]

I am using SAP BO4.1 SP5 installation to create unx universes. There is a requirement to leverage the unx universes by exposing the objects as an oData service, to be consumed by tools other than BO. Reading SCN posts and blogs, there is a Universe Connector, which should enable this. However, I have not found a step by step guide on how to use this API.

Can someone be able to provide help?

[amitrathi239 · Accepted solution]

check these links.

Create a connection to an OData data source: Information design tool 4.1 - YouTube

[iangwilt · Accepted solution]

Thank you for the reply, Amit.

However, I am wanting the IDT itself to be exposed as an oData source, such that the IDT objects can be consumed as an oData service.

Again, thank you for the response.

Ian

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Ian,

You are right, this is not achievable through IDT. However you have to use the approach of BI Semantic Layer REST API to create a query(on objects present in a UNX/UNV universe) & then you can expose the query result set using the OData protocol.

Are you looking for this approach?

If yes, then you needs execute a set of workflow which is as follows:-

1. Login to Enterprise using REST Web Services SDKs.

2. Getting the list of available universes.

3. Select an appropriate universe & get the details of that universe.

4. From Step 3, you have to identify the objects that you want to expose through OData.

5. Then you have to create query using RESTful Web services & include the objects that you identified in Step 4.

6. Once the query is created successfully, you can access the query result set using OData protocol. The resultant OData URL for consuming data should looks like this:-

http://<BI-Server-Name>:6405/biprws/sl/v1//queries/6089913651317040730/data.svc/Flows0   (This returns all the data that the Flows0 flow contains).

7. Once you get the resultset & saved it in some other temporary storage, you can log off from the Enterprise.

The above workflow needs a good knowledge of RESTful Web Service programming. The RESTful Web Services Developer guide have steps describe into it, i.e. how to get universe details, how to create query & how to get the results from the semantic layer query using OData protocol.

I strongly recommend you to first try the above workflow with any REST Client & if this workflow is feasible with you can go ahead with this approach.

I have worked on some scenarios where business user's wants to create reports(on some other vendor BI reporting tool) or queries directly from a SAP BusinessObjects Universe, by enabling OData connector.

Also, you can ask anymore further queries in space, in case you have any further queries.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

Shailendra

[iangwilt · Accepted solution]

Hi Shailendra,

Thank you for the detailed response. It is very helpful and just what I needed.

Thanks you

Ian

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Ian,

Does above steps resolves your problem?

If yes, kindly close this thread so that it will be helpful for other users or post the issue if you're facing any problem with the same.

Thanks,

Shailendra

[alfons_gonzalez]

Hi Shailendra,

Do you foresee if there would be some way to produce a OData Service (V4 protocol) that may be consumed directly with the broswer using Rest API Layer SDK? I mean, there would be away to maintain the OData service created with the API alive to be used for other consumers?

Thx