Use the CData ODBC Driver for Confluence in MicroStrategy Desktop

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

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

Connect to Confluence as an ODBC Data Source

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

Obtaining an API Token

An API token is necessary for account authentication. To generate one, login to your Atlassian account and navigate to API tokens > Create API token. The generated token will be displayed.

Connect Using a Confluence Cloud Account

To connect to a Cloud account, provide the following (Note: Password has been deprecated for connecting to a Cloud Account and is now used only to connect to a Server Instance.):

• User: The user which will be used to authenticate with the Confluence server.
• APIToken: The API Token associated with the currently authenticated user.
• Url: The URL associated with your JIRA endpoint. For example, https://yoursitename.atlassian.net.

Connect Using a Confluence Server Instance

To connect to a Server instance, provide the following:

• User: The user which will be used to authenticate with the Confluence instance.
• Password: The password which will be used to authenticate with the Confluence server.
• Url: The URL associated with your JIRA endpoint. For example, https://yoursitename.atlassian.net.

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 Confluence 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 Confluence Sys]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Confluence
Description = My Description
User = admin
APIToken = myApiToken
Url = https://yoursitename.atlassian.net
Timezone = America/New_York

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

Connect to and Visualize Confluence Data using MicroStrategy Desktop

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

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 Confluence data (see below) and click Execute SQL to test the query.

   SELECT * FROM Pages
   

   👁 Querying Confluence 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 Confluence data. Where possible, the complex queries generated by the filters and aggregations will be pushed down to Confluence, 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 Confluence data.
   
10. Once you are finished configuring the dossier, click File -> Save.

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