¶ Integrating CDS Views with External Systems: Extending SAP HANA Live Beyond the SAP Landscape
SAP HANA Live leverages Core Data Services (CDS) Views to provide real-time, semantic-rich access to operational data in SAP systems. While CDS Views are powerful for internal consumption—such as SAP Fiori apps or BW/4HANA—they also play a crucial role in integrating SAP landscapes with external systems. This integration enables organizations to extend their analytics and processes beyond SAP boundaries, driving broader business insights and interoperability.
This article explores the key methods, benefits, and best practices for integrating CDS Views with external systems in SAP HANA Live environments.
- Real-Time Data Sharing: Provide external applications with up-to-date SAP operational data for timely decision-making.
- Unified Business Processes: Synchronize and enrich processes spanning SAP and non-SAP systems.
- Improved Analytics: Feed CDS View data into third-party BI tools, machine learning platforms, or data lakes.
- Open Architecture: Enable flexible integration patterns supporting REST, SOAP, and other protocols.
- CDS Views can be published as OData Services (
@OData.publish: true), exposing SAP data over RESTful APIs.
- External systems can consume these services using standard HTTP protocols.
- Widely supported by SAPUI5, SAP Analytics Cloud, and non-SAP clients like Java, .NET, Python, or JavaScript apps.
- SAP Gateway provides an enterprise-grade framework to expose CDS Views as OData services or SOAP web services.
- Enables advanced features like security, throttling, and protocol transformations.
- Suitable for complex scenarios requiring SAP-specific authorization and governance.
- For scenarios requiring bulk or scheduled data extraction, tools like SAP Data Services or SAP Landscape Transformation (SLT) can replicate CDS View data to external databases or data warehouses.
- Enables integration with big data platforms, Hadoop, or cloud storage solutions.
- Some external tools can connect directly to SAP HANA database via JDBC or ODBC drivers.
- CDS Views can be accessed as database views (if enabled), allowing SQL-based queries by external systems.
- Suitable for high-performance data extracts but requires careful security management.
- Enforce authentication and authorization at the OData service or Gateway layer.
- Use SAP roles and CDS-based authorization annotations (
@AccessControl.authorizationCheck: #CHECK) to protect sensitive data.
- Encrypt communication using HTTPS/TLS.
- Filter and aggregate data within CDS Views to minimize data volume transferred.
- Use paging and selective field retrieval (
$select) in OData queries.
- Monitor service usage and tune SAP Gateway or HANA accordingly.
¶ Use Standard Protocols
- Prefer RESTful OData services for maximum compatibility and ease of consumption.
- For legacy systems, SOAP or batch data extraction might be necessary.
¶ Maintain Clear Data Contracts
- Define and document service interfaces clearly, including entity models, filter options, and expected responses.
- Use API management tools for versioning, lifecycle management, and monitoring.
- Develop a CDS View on sales data with relevant annotations.
- Publish it as an OData service using
@OData.publish: true.
- Register the service in SAP Gateway and secure it with appropriate roles.
- The CRM system consumes this service to fetch real-time sales updates, enabling unified customer insights.
Integrating CDS Views with external systems unlocks tremendous value by extending SAP HANA Live’s real-time analytics capabilities beyond SAP’s core ecosystem. Through OData services, SAP Gateway, or data replication technologies, organizations can build seamless, secure, and performant interfaces that empower cross-system collaboration and analytics.
By following best practices for security, performance, and standardization, SAP professionals can ensure robust and scalable integrations that enhance business agility and insight.
- SAP Help Portal: OData Services
- SAP Gateway Development Documentation
- SAP Community Blogs on CDS and External Integrations