How to Pass a Username & Password to a Link?

[Waad]

Hello,

I need to download attachments from SAP. However, I need to provide a username and password. How can I do that in Alteryx, keeping in mind that I'm passing the username and password to a link (the link directly downloads the attachment from SAP)?

Thank you.

[gautiergodard]

Hi @Waad 

Is the username and PW passed through the link URL itself? What kind of HTTP Action are you using within the download tool's "Payload" tab?

- If the username and PW are present in the URL itself, you could build the URL in a formula tool and pass the field into the download tool:

- Another option is seeing if the parameters can be passed via a payload. Here you could either pass a field or enter values direction in the bottom section of this tab of the download tool.

[Waad]

Thank you for your reply @gautiergodard 

Is the username and PW passed through the link URL itself?

No, I get a pop-up to enter the username and password.

What kind of HTTP Action are you using within the download tool's "Payload" tab?

POST

Regarding the other option, could you please explain how to enter the value direction in the bottom section of this download tool's tab?

Thank you.

[gautiergodard]

Hey @Waad

I don't believe / I am not aware of a standard payload to pass username and password; however, this is typically how I go about investigating:

1) Open your web page in Google Chrome

2) Right click on the page and select "Inspect"

3) Navigate to the "Network" tab on the banner of the Inspect page you just opened

4) Refresh the page (Ctrl + R)

5) Here you will need to click through the elements you see displayed in the "Name" column until you find the specific element for the login you are looking to perform.

6) Once/if you find it, you can look at the "Payload" tab and see the structure of the payload being delivered. (When you are evaluating the payload to see how it should be entered in Alteryx you will want to click on Query String Parameters = view source

7) Once you have the payload and URL information you need to make the request, you would enter this in the download tool in Alteryx. 

It may take some trail and error and depending on the website's authentication method this approach may not work - but its worth a try! 

Hope this helps.

[apathetichell]

Which SAP system are you running? If it's an On-Prem system do you have NetWeaver? Have you looked at DVW's connectors?

[Waad]

Thank you @gautiergodard for the steps. I tried them out, but they didn't work out for me.

I appreciate your help.

[Waad]

Thank you for your reply @apathetichell 

It is On-Prem system, and yes I do have NetWeaver.

Also, what can I do with DVW's connectors in this regard? 

[Mchappell67]

Hi -

We have the DVW ACS (Alteryx Connector for SAP) and they’re great. Allows you to access tables, views, BW objects, reports/t-codes.  There are a lot of tools available, some standard, some optional. They’ve been game changing for us. Before getting them, we struggled connecting via ODBC. 

If you provide more details on what you are attempting to do, I may be able to give you additional info.

Mark

[Waad]

Hello @Mchappell67, and thank you for your reply.

I know about DVW ACS, and I'm actually using it, but I don't know how it will help me here.

The normal process is that when I open the link, a pop-up is displayed requiring a username and password. After providing the credentials, the attachment is downloaded. I'm trying to figure out how to do that through Alteryx. How to pass the username and password to the URL to download the attachments. This is what I'm attempting to do.

Thank you. 

[Mchappell67]

Hi -

Based on what I've read here, it sounds like the source of the data is, in fact, an SAP system.  The data is accessed via a URL that connects to some object in the SAP system - "(the link directly downloads the attachment from SAP)".  I guess the intent of my reply was that if the URL is getting data from the SAP system, could the DVW tools access the data from another point, e.g. the tables/views that underly the data that you are currently retrieving?  Is the URL retrieving AL11 files, or email attachments or ???  Without knowing a a bit more, it's hard to make any better recommendations.

DVW does offer an RPA add-on that includes both a tool to use with GUI/t-codes, as well as an HTML tool.  I've only begun my testing of this add-on.  I've tested a bit with the GUI RPA tool, and I've managed to record a Fiori/UI5 session with/for the HTML tool.  If your only option is to continue to use the URL, perhaps you need an RPA solution to give you a bit more control, and the DVW tool can be embedded in the workflow.

Mark