Use the CData JDBC Driver for Adobe Commerce in MicroStrategy Web

MicroStrategy is an analytics and mobility platform that enables data-driven innovation. When you pair MicroStrategy with the CData JDBC Driver for Adobe Commerce, you gain database-like access to live Adobe Commerce data from MicroStrategy, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. In this article, we walk through adding Adobe Commerce as an external data source in MicroStrategy Web and creating a simple visualization of Adobe Commerce data.

The CData JDBC driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Adobe Commerce data in MicroStrategy due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from MicroStrategy to Adobe Commerce, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Adobe Commerce and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. With built-in dynamic metadata querying, you can visualize and analyze Adobe Commerce data using native MicroStrategy data types.

Connect to and Visualize Adobe Commerce Data using MicroStrategy Web

You can connect to Adobe Commerce in MicroStrategy Web by adding a data source based on the CData JDBC Driver for Adobe Commerce.^* Before you begin, you will need install the JDBC Driver for Adobe Commerce on the machine hosting the MicroStrategy Intelligence Server that your instance of MicroStrategy Web is connected to. Once you have created a data source you can build dynamic visualizations of Adobe Commerce data in MicroStrategy Web.

1. Open MicroStrategy Web and select your project.
2. Click Add External Data, select Databases, and use Select Tables as the Import Option. 👁 Adding External Data
   
3. In the Import from Tables wizard, click to add a new Data Source.
4. Select Generic in the Database menu and select Generic DBMS in the Version menu.
5. Click the link to show the connection string and opt to edit the connection string. In the Driver menu, select MicroStrategy Cassandra ODBC Driver (MicroStrategy requires a certified driver to interface through JDBC, the actual driver will not be used).
6. Set the connection string to the following:

   JDBC;MSTR_JDBC_JAR_FOLDER=PATH\TO\JAR\;DRIVER=cdata.jdbc.adobe commerce.Adobe CommerceDriver;URL={jdbc:adobe commerce:OAuthClientId=MyConsumerKey;OAuthClientSecret=MyConsumerSecret;CallbackURL=http://127.0.0.1:33333;Url=https://myAdobe Commercehost.com;};
   

   👁 Configure the data source.
   

   Adobe Commerce uses the OAuth 1 authentication standard. To connect to the Adobe Commerce REST API, obtain values for the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties by registering an app with your Adobe Commerce system. See the "Getting Started" section in the help documentation for a guide to obtaining the OAuth values and connecting.

   You will also need to provide the URL to your Adobe Commerce system. The URL depends on whether you are using the Adobe Commerce REST API as a customer or administrator.

   • Customer: To use Adobe Commerce as a customer, make sure you have created a customer account in the Adobe Commerce homepage. To do so, click Account -> Register. You can then set the URL connection property to the endpoint of your Adobe Commerce system.

   • Administrator: To access Adobe Commerce as an administrator, set CustomAdminPath instead. This value can be obtained in the Advanced settings in the Admin menu, which can be accessed by selecting System -> Configuration -> Advanced -> Admin -> Admin Base URL.

     If the Use Custom Admin Path setting on this page is set to YES, the value is inside the Custom Admin Path text box; otherwise, set the CustomAdminPath connection property to the default value, which is "admin".

   Built-in Connection String Designer

   For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Adobe Commerce JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.adobe commerce.jar
   

   Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

   👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)
   

   When you configure the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

7. Right-click on the new data source, and choose Edit catalog options.👁 Edit the catalog options.
   
8. Edit the SQL Statement to SELECT * FROM SYS_SCHEMAS to read the metadata from the JDBC Driver. 👁 Configuring the Catalog Options.
   
9. Select the new data source to view the available tables. You may need to manually click the search icon in the Available Tables section to see the tables.
10. Drag tables into the pane to import them. 👁 Select tables to import.
    Note: Since we create a live connection, we can import whole tables and utilize the filtering and aggregation features native to the MicroStrategy products to customize our datasets.
11. Click Finish, choose to the option to connect live, save the query, and choose the option to create a new dossier. Live connections are possible and effective, thanks to high-performance data processing native to CData JDBC drivers. 👁 Save the query and create a new dossier.
    
12. Choose a visualization, choose fields to display and apply any filters to create a new visualization of Adobe Commerce data. Data types are discovered automatically through dynamic metadata discovery. Where possible, the complex queries generated by the filters and aggregations will be pushed down to Adobe Commerce, while any unsupported operations (which can include SQL functions and JOIN operations) will be managed client-side by the CData SQL engine embedded in the driver. 👁 Visualize Adobe Commerce data.
    
13. Once you have finished configuring the dossier, click File -> Save.

Using the CData JDBC Driver for Adobe Commerce in MicroStrategy Web, you can easily create robust visualizations and reports on Adobe Commerce data. Read our other articles on connecting to Adobe Commerce in MicroStrategy and connecting to Adobe Commerce in MicroStrategy Desktop for more examples.

Note: Connecting using a JDBC Driver requires a 3- or 4-Tier Architecture.