Use the CData JDBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax in MicroStrategy

MicroStrategy is an analytics and mobility platform that enables data-driven innovation. When you pair MicroStrategy with the CData JDBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax, you gain database-like access to live Avalara AvaTax data from MicroStrategy, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. In this article, we walk through creating a database instance for Avalara AvaTax in MicroStrategy Developer and create a Warehouse Catalog for the Avalara AvaTax data.

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

Connect to Avalara AvaTax in MicroStrategy Developer

You can connect to Avalara AvaTax in MicroStrategy Developer by adding a database instance based on the CData JDBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax.^* Before you begin, you will need to install the JDBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax on the machine hosting the MicroStrategy Intelligence Server that your instance of MicroStrategy Developer is connected to.

1. Open MicroStrategy Developer and select a Project Source.
2. Navigate to Administration -> Configuration Managers -> Database Instances and right-click to add a new instance. 👁 Create a new Database Instance
   
3. Name the instance, select Generic DBMS as the database connection type, and create a new database connection. 👁 Create a new database connection.
   
4. In the database connection wizard, name the connection and create a new Database Login name, setting the user and password for Avalara AvaTax. 👁 Create a new database login.
   
5. On the Advanced tab for the connection wizard, set the additional connection string parameters as follows.
   • Add the JDBC keyword to the connection string.
   • Set MSTR_JDBC_JAR_FOLDER to the path of the directory containing the JAR file for the JDBC driver. (C:\Program Files\CData JDBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax\lib\ on Windows.)
   • Set DRIVER to cdata.jdbc.avalaraavatax.AvalaraAvataxDriver, the driver class.
   • Set URL to the JDBC URL for the Avalara AvaTax driver, which contains the necessary connection properties.

     The primary method for performing basic authentication is to provide your login credentials, as follows:

     • User: Set this to your username.
     • Password: Set this to your password.

     Optionally, if you are making use of a sandbox environment, set the following:

     • UseSandbox: Set this to true if you are authenticating with a sandbox account.

     Authenticating Using Account Number and License Key

     Alternatively, you can authenticate using your account number and license key. Connect to data using the following:

     • AccountId: Set this to your Account Id. The Account Id is listed in the upper right hand corner of the admin console.
     • LicenseKey: Set this to your Avalara Avatax license key. You can generate a license key by logging into Avalara Avatax as an account administrator and navigating to Settings -> Reset License Key.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.avalaraavatax.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.

   Typical additional connection string properties follow:

   JDBC;MSTR_JDBC_JAR_FOLDER=PATH\TO\JAR\;DRIVER=cdata.jdbc.avalaraavatax.AvalaraAvataxDriver;URL={jdbc:avalaraavatax:User=MyUser;Password=MyPassword;};
   

   👁 Configuring the connection to Avalara AvaTax data using JDBC.
   
6. Ensure that you have not selected an ODBC data source (this will trigger MicroStrategy to use the additional connection string parameters to build the database instance) and click OK.
7. Click OK to close the database instance wizard.
8. In the Project Source, right-click the project and open the Project configuration.
9. Navigate to Database Instances, select the newly created database instance, and click OK. 👁 Adding the new database instance to the project.
   
10. Close MicroStrategy Developer and restart the connected MicroStrategy Intelligence Server to complete the database instance creation.

With the database instance configured, you will now be able to connect to Avalara AvaTax data from the Warehouse Catalog and Data Import.

Connect to Avalara AvaTax Data from the Warehouse Catalog

Once you have created a database instance based on the JDBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax, you can connect to data from the Warehouse Catalog.

1. Select your project and click Schema -> Warehouse Catalog. 👁 Creating the Warehouse Catalog
   
2. In the Read Settings for the Catalog, click Settings and set the queries to retrieve the schema:
   • To retrieve the list of tables, use the following query:

     SELECT 
      * 
     FROM 
      SYS_TABLES
      

   • To retrieve the list of columns for selected tables, use the following query:

     SELECT DISTINCT 
      CatalogName NAME_SPACE, 
      TableName TAB_NAME, 
      ColumnName COL_NAME, 
      DataTypeName DATA_TYPE, 
      Length DATA_LEN, 
      NumericPrecision DATA_PREC, 
      NumericScale DATA_SCALE 
     FROM 
      SYS_TABLECOLUMNS 
     WHERE 
      TableName IN (#TABLE_LIST#) 
     ORDER BY
      1,2,3
      

   👁 Custom metadata queries.
   
3. Select tables to be used in the project. 👁 Selecting tables to be used in the project.
   

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

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