Use the CData ODBC Driver for Asana in MicroStrategy Desktop

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

The CData ODBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Asana data in MicroStrategy due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from MicroStrategy to Asana, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Asana 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 Asana data using native MicroStrategy data types.

Connect to Asana as an ODBC Data Source

Information for connecting to Asana follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments.

You can optionally set the following to refine the data returned from Asana.

• WorkspaceId: Set this to the globally unique identifier (gid) associated with your Asana Workspace to only return projects from the specified workspace. To get your workspace id, navigate to https://app.asana.com/api/1.0/workspaces while logged into Asana. This displays a JSON object containing your workspace name and Id.
• ProjectId: Set this to the globally unique identifier (gid) associated with your Asana Project to only return data mapped under the specified project. Project IDs can be found in the URL of your project's Overview page. This will be the numbers directly after /0/.

Connect Using OAuth Authentication

You must use OAuth to authenticate with Asana. OAuth requires the authenticating user to interact with Asana using the browser. See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.

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 Asana 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 Asana Sys]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Asana
Description = My Description
OAuthClientId = YourClientId
OAuthClientSecret = YourClientSecret
CallbackURL = 'http://localhost:33333'
InitiateOAuth = GETANDREFRESH

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

Connect to and Visualize Asana Data using MicroStrategy Desktop

In addition to connecting Asana in MicroStrategy enterprise products, you can connect to Asana in MicroStrategy Desktop. Follow the steps below to add Asana data as a dataset and create visualizations and reports of Asana data.

1. Open MicroStrategy Desktop and create a new dossier.
2. In the datasets panel, click New Data, select Databases, and select Type a Query as the Import Option.
3. Add a new data source and choose DSN data sources.
4. Choose the DSN you previously configured (likely CData Asana Sys) and select Generic DBMS in the Version menu.
5. Set the User and Password properties for the DSN (or use placeholder values) and name the data source.
👁 Creating a new data source for Asana.

6. Select the new database instance to view the tables. You may need to manually click the search icon in the Available Tables section to see the tables.
7. Create a SQL query for the Asana data (see below) and click Execute SQL to test the query.

   SELECT * FROM projects
   

   👁 Querying Asana for data.
   NOTE: Since we create a live connection, we can execute a SELECT * query and utilize the filtering and aggregation features native to the MicroStrategy products.
8. Click Finish and choose to connect live.
9. Choose a visualization, choose fields to display (data types are discovered automatically through dynamic metadata discovery) and apply any filters to create a new visualization of Asana data. Where possible, the complex queries generated by the filters and aggregations will be pushed down to Asana, 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 Asana data.
   
10. Once you are finished configuring the dossier, click File -> Save.

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