Access Live Avalara AvaTax Data in SAS JMP via ODBC

You can use the CData ODBC Driver for Avalara to integrate live data into your statistical analysis with SAS JMP. The driver proxies your queries directly to the Avalara AvaTax API, ensuring that your analysis reflects any changes to the data. The CData ODBC Driver supports the standard SQL used by JMP in the background as you design reports.

The Avalara AvaTax API supports bidirectional access. This article shows how to access Avalara AvaTax data into a report and create data visualization. It also shows how to use SQL to query and manipulate Avalara AvaTax data from the JMP Query Builder.

Access Avalara AvaTax Data as an ODBC Data Source

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.

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.

Import Avalara AvaTax Data with the Query Builder

After you have created the Avalara AvaTax DSN, you can use SQL to invoke the capabilities of the Avalara AvaTax API. Follow the steps below to execute some supported queries in the Query Builder:

1. In SAS JMP, click File -> Database -> Query Builder. The Select Database Connection dialog is displayed.
2. Click New Connection.
3. On the Machine Data Source tab, select the ODBC DSN you configured and then click Next. 👁 Select the ODBC DSN you configured. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
4. The Select Tables for Query dialog is displayed and in the Available Tables section, select a table and click Primary. After choosing the primary table, click Build Query to open the Query Builder. 👁 Select the Primary table for the Query. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
5. As you drag Available Columns to the Included Columns tab, the underlying SQL query is updated and you can view the generated SQL Query in the SQL tab. 👁 The generated query in the Query Builder. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
6. Click Run Query to display the data. 👁 The results of a query in the Query Builder. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
7. To refresh the results with the current data, right-click Update from Database and click Run Script.

Manipulate Avalara AvaTax Data

You can execute data manipulation queries from JSL scripts such as the one below. To execute a script, click New Script in the toolbar. To connect, specify the DSN. You can then use the standard SQL syntax:

Open Database( "DSN=CData AvalaraAvatax Source;",
"INSERT INTO Transactions
(Code)
VALUES ('051349');");

Visualize Avalara AvaTax Data

After importing, you can use the Graph Builder to create graphs visually. To open the Graph Builder, click the Graph Builder button in the toolbar.

1. Drag a dimension column onto the x axis. For example, Id.
2. Drag a measure column onto the y axis. For example, TotalTax.
3. Select a chart type. For example, a bar chart. 👁 Configuration of a basic chart. (Salesforce is shown.)