Access Avalara AvaTax Data in Mule Applications Using the CData JDBC Driver

The CData JDBC Driver for Avalara connects Avalara AvaTax data to Mule applications enabling read , write, update, and delete functionality with familiar SQL queries. The JDBC Driver allows users to easily create Mule applications to backup, transform, report, and analyze Avalara AvaTax data.

This article demonstrates how to use the CData JDBC Driver for Avalara inside of a Mule project to create a Web interface for Avalara AvaTax data. The application created allows you to request Avalara AvaTax data using an HTTP request and have the results returned as JSON. The exact same procedure outlined below can be used with any CData JDBC Driver to create a Web interface for the hundreds of available data sources.

1. Create a new Mule Project in Anypoint Studio.
2. Add an HTTP Connector to the Message Flow.
3. Configure the address for the HTTP Connector. 👁 Add and Configure the HTTP Connector
   
4. Add a Database Select Connector to the same flow, after the HTTP Connector.
5. Create a new Connection (or edit an existing one) and configure the properties.
   • Set Connection to "Generic Connection"
   • Select the CData JDBC Driver JAR file in the Required Libraries section (e.g. cdata.jdbc.avalaraavatax.jar). 👁 Adding the JAR file (Salesforce is shown).
     
   • Set the URL to the connection string for Avalara AvaTax

     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.

   • Set the Driver class name to cdata.jdbc.avalaraavatax.AvalaraAvataxDriver. 👁 A configured Database Connection (Salesforce is shown).
     
   • Click Test Connection.
6. Set the SQL Query Text to a SQL query to request Avalara AvaTax data. For example:

   SELECT Id, TotalTax FROM Transactions WHERE Code = '051349'

   👁 Configure the Select object (Salesforce is Shown)
   
7. Add a Transform Message Component to the flow.
8. Set the Output script to the following to convert the payload to JSON:

   %dw 2.0
   output application/json
   ---
   payload
    

   👁 Add the Transform Message Component to the Flow
   
9. To view your Avalara AvaTax data, navigate to the address you configured for the HTTP Connector (localhost:8081 by default): http://localhost:8081. The Avalara AvaTax data is available as JSON in your Web browser and any other tools capable of consuming JSON endpoints.

At this point, you have a simple Web interface for working with Avalara AvaTax data (as JSON data) in custom apps and a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools. Download a free, 30 day trial of the JDBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax and see the CData difference in your Mule Applications today.