BellaDati can import data from URLs, web services and REST APIs.
Connecting to URL has similarities with file import. In addition URL imports can be scheduled to execute automatically and repeatedly.
URL popup offers advanced section for authentization and specific HTTP headers settings.
Connecting to URL
From Data Source Connectors page select Connect from URL.
Connection Parameters
Enter following parameters to connect to URL source:
- URL: Web address
- File content: Select the file format - CSV (text file), Excel (XLS, XLSX), XML or ZIP
- Authentication: No Authentication, Simple, oAuth1a, oAuth2
Then continue setting like for file import.
Login and password are optional parameters.
Date and Time Variables
If you need to change the URL or HTTP post content dynamically, you can use predefined variables. BellaDati currently supports functions to get date, time or timestamp in user defined formats:
Name | Description | Examples |
---|---|---|
| Evaluates the |
|
| Works like |
|
| Evaluates the |
|
| Works like | $time(now, HH:mm:ss) |
| Returns the current time stamp value |
|
DateString
- now - represents actual date
- actualyear - represents the first day of actual year (1.1.20XX). For example actualyear selected on 21.9.2010 represents date 1.1.2010
- actualquarter - represents the first day of actual quarter (1.1.20XX, 1.4.20XX, 1.7.20XX, 1.10.20XX). For example actualquarter selected on 21.9.2010 represents date 1.7.2010
- actualmonth - represents the first day of actual month (1.1.20XX, 1.2.20XX, ...). For example actaulmonth selected in 21.9.2010 represents date 1.9.2010
- actualweek - represents first day of actual week (Monday). For example actualweek selected on 21.9.2010 represents date 20.9.2010 (Monday of this week in calendar)
- relative and absolute enterig of date can be adjusted by operators using this syntax: date +|- n[d|w|m|q|y], where n is integer, d represents day, w represents week, m represents month q represents quartal and y represents year. We can for example define time in this way: actualyear + 2m -4d. Today is 21.9.2010, so this value represents 1.1.2010 + 2 months - 4 days, which means date 25.2.2010.
TimeString
- now - represents actual time
- actualhour - represents the actual hour at 0 minutes and 0 seconds.
- actualminute - represents the actual minute at 0 seconds
- actualsecond - represents the actual second
Connecting to SOAP web Services
BellaDati is able to connect resources available on network via the HTTP protocol. Except this simple usage, we can connect also more complex resources available as Web services. Web services are using the SOAP protocol, which is based on the plain HTTP protocol. The SOAP message comes in standard XML format, which is in BellaDati perfectly supported. Here is an example how to do it:
- Enter the endpoint URL of your web service and choose the XML file format.
- Open the advanced settings, choose the POST method and set the following parameters:
- SOAPAction - value is contained in the WSDL file, which describes your web service. It is defined in the soapAction tag, e.g.: <soap:operation soapAction="http://www.sap.com/Z_HSI_HRP04_RZH_READ_DATA"/>
- Content-Type - set the value to text/xml
- Insert the POST content in the depicted structure:
In case you suffer any issues while connecting to SAP Web Services, we recommend to use external tools like SoapUI to which will generate right structure of XML structure based on WSDL.
SoapUI will also help you to generate right http Post content.
Connecting to REST web services
You can connect to REST web services over HTTP using BellaDati. Just select the proper HTTP GET header type and file type (eg. CSV).
Authentication
The following authentication methods are supported:
- Basic and Digest HTTP Access Authentication (RFC2617 standard)
- OAuth1a
- OAuth2
REST API supports OAuth standard with a security token.
For OAuth1a, following connection parameters are available:
- Consumer Key,
- Consumer Secret,
- Request Token URL,
- Token Authorization URL,
- Access Token URL.
For OAuth2, it is also possible to define Resource and State parameters, which are used for example when connecting to an Azure service.
Tutorial video
Next Steps
- Take me back to data sources
- Import settings
- Scheduling Import