Use Hybrid Data Pipeline’s Data Source Grouping
Introduction
Exposing data sources as External Objects within Salesforce is a game changer when trying to maintain data where it lives, while providing a “single pane of glass” view inside Salesforce. This helps with compliance for GDPR, as well as other regulations, by maintaining a single source of truth.
Yet, one of the challenges Salesforce Connect presents is the cost of connecting to multiple OData endpoints, and this is where Progress DataDirect can help. By taking advantage of Hybrid Data Pipeline’s data source group feature, it is now possible to use a single endpoint to connect to multiple data sources. Progress DataDirect Hybrid Data Pipeline is an easy to deploy, lightweight data gateway which instantly connects to your data sources, providing OData 4 REST API access.
In this tutorial, we will show you how to connect to multiple data sources using Hybrid Data Pipeline and generate a single OData 4 endpoint which can then be used with Salesforce Connect.
Download and Install Hybrid Data Pipeline Server
Follow the below tutorials on how to install Progress Hybrid Data Pipeline in Azure or AWS or any Linux server.
For AWS
For Azure
If you are planning to use this with Salesforce Connect, be sure to provide your own publicly trusted SSL Certificate during the installation. Salesforce requires this for OData endpoints. Here is a link to details on building the PEM file you will need during the installation:
Once you have Hybrid Data Pipeline up and running, you can move on to creating data sources, configuring the OData 4 schema mapping and bringing two or more sources together as a data group.
Create A Data Source
Once logged into the Hybrid Data Pipeline interface, navigate to the data source page and select the data source you would like to connect to.
For this example, we are connecting to Oracle RDS. Be sure to fill in the required fields for your data source. For more details on connecting to data sources, you can check out our documentation. Once you successfully test connect to the data source from Hybrid Data Pipeline, it is time for the next step.
To OData enable this source by going to the OData tab and clicking on Edit/View:
For details on using the OData Schema Tool, find step-by-step instructions here. Once you have completed the setup, you should be able to open a browser and navigate to the OData Access URI presented on the OData configuration tab. Going to this link and logging in as your HDP user should return the list of tables exposed via OData as seen here:
Repeat the above steps to create a second data source within Hybrid Data Pipeline and OData enable it. Once you have two or more sources configured, you can move on to the next step of creating a data source group.
Creating a Data Source Group
Go to the Data Sources list within Hybrid Data Pipeline to see the new sources you have added in the prior steps. At the top of that page, click on the Data Source Groups tab and then click New Group.
On the Update the Data Source Group page, name your data source, choose your OData version and select the data sources to include within the group. Give each data source a unique prefix to allow you to differentiate between them. Be sure to copy the OData Access URI to your clipboard as well. Once configured, click save and close.
When you go to the data source group access URI in a browser, you will see all of the exposed tables presented via the single OData endpoint:
From here, you can use the OData URI within Salesforce, connecting to it as an external data source and providing your Hybrid Data Pipeline credentials:
You will now be able to see the external objects in Salesforce!
Please feel free to download a trial of Progress DataDirect Hybrid Data Pipeline and try out OData and Data Source Grouping for yourself. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to help.