How to connect PolyBase to Adobe Target

PolyBase for SQL Server allows you to query external data by using the same Transact-SQL syntax used to query a database table. When paired with the CData ODBC Driver for Adobe Target, you get access to your Adobe Target data directly alongside your SQL Server data. This article describes creating an external data source and external tables to grant access to live Adobe Target data using T-SQL queries.

NOTE: PolyBase is only available on SQL Server 19 and above.

The CData ODBC drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live Adobe Target data using PolyBase due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SQL Server to Adobe Target, the driver pushes down supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Adobe Target and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. And with PolyBase, you can also join SQL Server data with Adobe Target data, using a single query to pull data from distributed sources.

Connect to Adobe Target

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs. To create an external data source in SQL Server using PolyBase, configure a System DSN (CData Adobe Target Sys is created automatically).

To connect to Adobe Target, you must provide the Tenant property along with OAuth connection properties mentioned below. Note that while other connection properties can influence processing behavior, they do not affect the ability to connect.

To determine your Tenant name:

1. Log in to Adobe Experience. The URL will look similar to: "https://experience.adobe.com/#/@mycompanyname/preferences/general-section".
2. Extract the value after the "/#/@". In this example, it is "mycompanyname".
3. Set the Tenant connection property to that value.

User Accounts (OAuth)

You must set AuthScheme to OAuthClient for all user account flows.

Note: Adobe authentication via OAuth requires updating your token every two weeks.

All Applications

CData provides an embedded OAuth application that simplifies OAuth authentication. Alternatively, you can create a custom OAuth application. Review Creating a Custom OAuth App in the Help documentation for more information.

Obtaining the OAuth Access Token

Set the following properties to connect:

• InitiateOAuth: Set to GETANDREFRESH to automatically perform the OAuth exchange and refresh the OAuthAccessToken as needed.
• OAuthClientId : Set to the client Id assigned when you registered your app.
• OAuthClientSecret : Set to the client secret assigned when you registered your app.
• CallbackURL : Set to the redirect URI defined when you registered your app. For example: https://localhost:3333

With these settings, the provider obtains an access token from Adobe Target, which it uses to request data. The OAuth values are stored in the location specified by OAuthSettingsLocation, ensuring they persist across connections.

Click "Test Connection" to ensure that the DSN is connected to Adobe Target properly. Navigate to the Tables tab to review the table definitions for Adobe Target.

Create an External Data Source for Adobe Target Data

After configuring the connection, you need to create a master encryption key and a credential database for the external data source.

Creating a Master Encryption Key

Execute the following SQL command to create a new master key, 'ENCRYPTION,' to encrypt the credentials for the external data source.

CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'password';

Creating a Credential Database

Execute the following SQL command to create credentials for the external data source connected to Adobe Target data.

NOTE: Since Adobe Target does not require a User or Password to authenticate, you may use whatever values you wish for IDENTITY and SECRET.

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL adobetarget_creds
WITH IDENTITY = 'username', SECRET = 'password';

Create an External Data Source for Adobe Target

Execute a CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE SQL command to create an external data source for Adobe Target with PolyBase:

• Set the LOCATION parameter , using the DSN and credentials configured earlier.

For Adobe Target, set SERVERNAME to the URL or address for your server (e.g. 'localhost' or '127.0.0.1' for local servers; the remote URL for remote servers). Leave PORT empty. PUSHDOWN is set to ON by default, meaning the ODBC Driver can leverage server-side processing for complex queries.

CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE cdata_adobetarget_source
WITH ( 
 LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
 CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData Adobe Target Sys',
 -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
 CREDENTIAL = adobetarget_creds
);

Create External Tables for Adobe Target

After creating the external data source, use CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statements to link to Adobe Target data from your SQL Server instance. The table column definitions must match those exposed by the CData ODBC Driver for Adobe Target. You can refer to the Tables tab of the DSN Configuration Wizard to see the table definition.

👁 Table definition in the DSN Configuration Wizard (Salesforce is shown)

Sample CREATE TABLE Statement

The statement to create an external table based on a Adobe Target Activities would look similar to the following:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE Activities(
 Id [nvarchar](255) NULL,
 Name [nvarchar](255) NULL,
 ...
) WITH ( 
 LOCATION='Activities',
 DATA_SOURCE=cdata_adobetarget_source
);

Having created external tables for Adobe Target in your SQL Server instance, you are now able to query local and remote data simultaneously. Thanks to built-in query processing in the CData ODBC Driver, you know that as much query processing as possible is being pushed to Adobe Target, freeing up local resources and computing power. Download a free, 30-day trial of the ODBC Driver for Adobe Target and start working with live Adobe Target data alongside your SQL Server data today.