3802436 - How to use Integration Center to simulate OData API calls

Integration Center uses OData API internally, so it can be used to simulate these calls. This can be useful to:

• Understand some field navigations.
• Get a preview of the data you would see in an API call.
• Work on filters and see how they behave in the query.
• Troubleshoot issues that are occurring in OData API call in a simplified way.
• Quickly consult data from the internal tables of objects that are available in OData API.

Image/data in this KBA is from SAP internal systems, sample data, or demo systems. Any resemblance to real data is purely coincidental.

• SAP SuccessFactors HCM Suite
  • Integration Center
  • OData API

Using Integration Center

1. In Integration Center, select Create > Scheduled Simple File Output Integration.
2. Search for the starting entity of your API query - let's use EmpJob as an example:
   
   
   
   
   • This is the root entity in an OData API call ("/odata/v2/EmpJob", for example).
3. In the panel to the right, you can already select some fields - these would be the fields added under the $select statement of an OData API query:
   
   
   
   
   • These are the fields you can consult in the OData API Data Dictionary tool.
4. Click on "Select" button at the bottom-right to proceed.
5. In "Configure Fields" tab you'll see a preview of the response from the API call being performed by Integration Center, containing all the fields you selected:
   
   
   
   
   • This preview is shown in a column-row perspective, which is an easier and friendly way to understand the response of an API call.
     
     
6. You can add new fields through the "+ Add" button:
   
   
   
   
   • When adding new fields, it's recommended to use the "Entity Tree View" section to find the fields you want:
     
     
     
     
   • It will contain the fields from the root entity and will allow you to navigate to other associated entities, for example: locationNav field from EmpJob will navigate to the FOLocation object:
     
     
     
     
   • You can further navigate to other entities, for example: from EmpJob to FOLocation, from FOLocation to FOCorporateAddressDEFLT:
     
     
     
     • Just keep in mind the behavior of Integration Center with one-to-many navigations (refer to KBA 3087941 - Handling One-to-Many behavior in Integration Center).
7. Clicking on "Add Association" button will add that field to the preview from before.
8. It's possible to add filters in the "Filter and Sort" tab - filtering for a specific user, for example:
   
   
   
   
   • These are the filters you would add in the $filter statement of an OData API query.
     
     
9. You can go back to "Configure Fields" tab to see the results of your filter.

Viewing the OData API query executed by Integration Center

If you need to check what exact OData API query Integration Center is executing to get those results, you can follow these steps:

1. Click on "Save" button and select "Export Integration Specification".
2. This will download a CSV file. Open it.
3. In the last line of the file you'll see the OData API query being performed:
   
   

Using the Integration Center

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