Use the CData ODBC 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 ODBC 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 creating a Warehouse Catalog based on Avalara AvaTax data.

The CData ODBC 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 as an ODBC Data Source

Information for connecting to Avalara AvaTax follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments (the ODBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax must be installed on the machine hosting the connected MicroStrategy Intelligence Server).

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.

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 Avalara AvaTax 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 AvalaraAvatax Sys]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax
Description = My Description
User = MyUser
Password = MyPassword

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

Create a Avalara AvaTax Database Instance in MicroStrategy Developer

You can connect to Avalara AvaTax in MicroStrategy Developer by adding a database instance based on the CData ODBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax.^*

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.
3. Name the instance, select Generic DBMS as the database connection type, and create a new database connection.
4. In the database connection wizard, name the connection and create a new Database Login name, using filler values for the user and password. 👁 Create a new database login.
   
5. Select the DSN that you configured earlier as the ODBC data source (i.e., CData AvalaraAvatax Sys). 👁 Choosing the DSN for the database connection.
   
6. Select the newly created database connection.
👁 The configured database instance.

7. In the Project Source, right-click the project and open the Project configuration.
8. Navigate to Database Instances and select the newly created database instance. 👁 Adding the new database instance to the project.
   
9. 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 ODBC 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 
      CatalogName NAME_SPACE,
      TableName TAB_NAME 
     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.
   

If you are interested in connecting to Avalara AvaTax from other MicroStrategy products, you can read about connecting from MicroStrategy Web and connecting from MicroStrategy Desktop.

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Note: connecting using a ODBC driver requires a 3- or 4-tier architecture.