Use the CData ODBC Driver for Amazon Marketplace in SAS for Real-Time Reporting and Analytics

SAS is a software suite developed for advanced analytics, multivariate analysis, business intelligence, data management, and predictive analytics. When you pair SAS with the CData ODBC Driver for Amazon Marketplace, you gain database-like access to live Amazon Marketplace data from SAS, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. This article explains how to create a library for Amazon Marketplace in SAS and create a simple report based on real-time Amazon Marketplace data.

The CData ODBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Amazon Marketplace data in SAS due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SAS to Amazon Marketplace, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Amazon Marketplace 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 easily visualize and analyze Amazon Marketplace data in SAS.

Connect to Amazon Marketplace as an ODBC Data Source

Information for connecting to Amazon Marketplace follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments (the ODBC Driver for Amazon Marketplace must be installed on the machine hosting the SAS System).

To connect to the Amazon Marketplace Webservice (MWS), AWSAccessKeyId, MWSAuthToken, AWSSecretKey and SellerId are required. You can optionally set the Marketplace property. For more information on obtaining values for these properties, refer to the Help documentation.

When you configure the DSN, 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.

Windows

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.

Linux

If you are installing the CData ODBC Driver for Amazon Marketplace in a Linux environment, the driver installation predefines a system DSN. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties.

/etc/odbc.ini

[CData AmazonMarketplace Sys]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Amazon Marketplace
Description = My Description
AWS Access Key Id = myAWSAccessKeyId
AWS Secret Key = myAWSSecretKey
MWS Auth Token = myMWSAuthToken
Seller Id = mySellerId
Marketplace = United States

For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).

Create a Amazon Marketplace Library in SAS

Connect to Amazon Marketplace in SAS by adding a library based on the CData ODBC Driver for Amazon Marketplace.

1. Open SAS and expand Libraries in the Explorer pane.
2. In the Active Libraries window, right-click and select New.
3. Name your library (odbclib), select ODBC as the Engine, and click to Enable at startup (if you want the library to persist between sessions).
4. Set Data Source to the DSN you previously configured and click OK. 👁 Creating a library for Amazon Marketplace in SAS.
   

Create a View from a Amazon Marketplace Query

SAS natively supports querying data either using a low-code, point-and-click Query tool or programmatically with PROC SQL and a custom SQL query. When you create a View in SAS, the defining query is executed each time the view is queried. This means that you always query live Amazon Marketplace data for reports, charts, and analytics.

Using the Query Tool

1. In SAS, click Tools -> Query
2. Select the table sources and the table(s) you wish to pull data from. Then, click OK. 👁 Selecting table(s) to visualize.
   
3. Select columns and right-click to add filtering, ordering, grouping, etc. 👁 Selecting columns(s) to visualize and configuring the query.
   
4. Create a local view to contain the query results by right-clicking the SQL Query Tool window, selecting Show Query, and clicking Create View. Name the View and click OK. 👁 Create a local view to work with Amazon Marketplace data.
   

Using PROC SQL

1. In SAS, navigate to the Editor window.
2. Use PROC SQL to query the data and create a local view.
   NOTE: This procedure creates a view in the Work library. You can optionally specify a library in the create view statement.

   proc sql;
    create view orders_view as
    select 
    amazonorderid, 
    orderstatus 
    from 
    odbclib.orders 
    where 
    IsReplacementOrder = 'True';
   quit;
   

3. Click Run -> Submit to execute the query and create a local view.

Report On or Visualize Amazon Marketplace Data in SAS

With a local view created, you can report, visualize, or otherwise analyze Amazon Marketplace data using the powerful SAS features. Print a simple report using PROC PRINT and create a basic graph based on the data using PROC GCHART.

Print an HTML Report

1. In SAS, navigate to the Editor window.
2. Use PROC PRINT to print an HTML report for the Amazon Marketplace Orders data.

   proc print data=orders;
    title "Amazon Marketplace Orders Data";
   run;
   

   👁 A simple Amazon Marketplace data report.
   

Print a Chart

1. In SAS, navigate to the Editor window.
2. Use PROC GCHART to create a chart for the Orders data.

   proc gchart data=orders;
    pie amazonorderid / sumvar=orderstatus
    value=arrow
    percent=arrow
    noheading
    percent=inside plabel=(height=12pt)
    slice=inside value=none
    name='OrdersChart';
   run;
   

   👁 A simple Amazon Marketplace data chart.