How to create custom API for Talent Intelligence Hub data to integrate with downstream system(s)

[ujjalgupta2]

Business Scenario:

1. Case 1 – Sending TIH Attribute Library (Eg: Skills & Competencies) to 3rd party or downstream systems
2. Case 2 – A BTP Application wants to read skill data from TIH Attribute Library via API for using it in another process

Current Challenge: As of 2H2024 release Talent Intelligence Hub doesn't have an API which will allow the customers to connect their third party or downstream system(s) via API to read Attributes Library data.

Workaround Solution: In this blog we will focus on this limitation and provide a workaround to build a custom API using Custom MDF approach.

Following steps to be done to achieve above business scenarios:

1. Create an Attribute Custom MDF with all the fields as available in Attribute Library, since APIs are readily available for custom MDF.
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2. Now we need to ensure this MDF gets data updated as and when new Attributes are added in Attribute Library or existing Attributes are updated or made inactive.
3. For this we need to schedule an Attribute Export Integration Centre Job and send the .csv file to sftp server. (check the implementation guide for this standard step here)
4. Create a CPI Job to do following steps:
   • Fetch the file which contains all skill master data from SFSF SFTP server. 
   • Compare the data in the file with the data in custom MDF based on the key field: wsmid . If any of the fields: Attribute Name, Attribute Description, Attribute External Code, Attribute Status are different.
   • Generate the delta changes file and then
   • Update the delta attribute changes into Attribute Custom MDF. 
5. Once the custom MDF has Attributes data available, this can be accessed by third party, downstream system(s) and BTP Application for any extensions via custom MDF's API seamlessly.

This way using Custom MDF we can create a Custom API for TIH Attributes data to be used with third party, downstream system(s) or even utilised by BTP Applications.

Key Notes:

1. Attribute export Integration Center job can be scheduled for once daily. However if required the Attribute export job can be run on adhoc basis as well and data can be sent to SFTP server.
2. CPI job can be scheduled as many times in a day, so schedule it as per business requirement for other applications or downstream system(s)
3. Attribute custom MDF can also have extra fields related to the Attributes depending on business requirements. (however, these need to be updated manually)
4. As per business requirements different checks or filters can be added in the CPI job to ensure only required Attribute data gets update into the custom MDF eg: Standard Attribute external code when created from UI is like "101-1234" and customer may have a requirement to use alphanumeric external code for Attributes, so such cases can be filtered out from SFTP file and not updated into the custom MDF.

Thanks for reading this blog, please share your feedback or inputs about this blog. In case you have come across similar scenarios, would be happy to understand other such workaround solutions.

Important Note: This solution is for specific business requirement. For other scenario's, please check the standard options available first as there could be further enhancements in subsequent release to standard functionalities.

1. For integration data between SAP cloud based systems, MDI is the recommended standard for SAP system integration due to its centralized approach, ensuring a single source of truth and improved data quality.

For TIH data using MDI integration please refer to the following help guide as this should be the goto approach for anything standard

https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_SUCCESSFACTORS_PLATFORM/e15477b0414b4b25b224a97ad52c12ec/1bce1251940b4...

2. Using this custom solution may lead to  rework and migration costs when transitioning to the standard API(once available for Attributes Library), as SAP will not support the migration from custom implementations.