Tip: How to use SAP API Business Hub

[StefanSchnell]

SAP offers an API Business Hub. It provides one central repository for browsing and accessing APIs from SAP and select partners. This hub is a collection of very interesting services in business context, like e.g. SAP SuccessFactors (HR management in the cloud) or SAP FieldGlass (workforce management in the cloud). This post describes how easy it is to integrate API calls from the SAP API Business Hub into UiPath workflows.

A few partners which offers services are e.g. NGA Human Resources, Advantco for Salesforce integration and Amazon WS adapter and Microsoft Dynamic CRM adapter, HERE Location Services (e.g. mapping, routing, traffic or weather), ADP Tax Credits for SuccessFactors integration, CELUM Digital Asset Management for Marketing Cloud integration, Rojo Consultancy B.V. for SharePoint Online for Office 365 etc. Very interesting solutions with very interesting possibilities.

SAP offers a sandbox to try the different possibilities. It is necessary to register. After registering you get an API key. You need this API key for each call of a service. To get the API key go to your preferences and press Show API Key.

The API Business Hub offers different perspectives of services: solution, content type or theme based. In this example I use the content type API and here the SAP Help - Search API. With this REST call I get a list of topics matching the specified by user search terms.

The SAP API Business Hub offers, to try a service, a Swagger-like interface to perform simple tests. Everything is described very well, in detail and understandable.

Also you can show Code Snippets in different languages. This is very helpful.

And with the UiPath HTTP Request Wizard from the UiPath.Web.Activites package it is absolut easy to define the correct parameters for an API call of the SAP API Business Hub. All you need for this example is the q parameter, the query string, in this case Scripting, and the APIKey parameter, for identification.

On the one hand we can try the service and its parameters itself in the browser and on the other hand we can try it in RPA context with the wizard. Wow, to use professional web services like SAP API Business Hub with UiPath is like snapping my fingers.