Use the CData ODBC Driver for Confluence in SAS for Real-Time Reporting and Analytics

SAS is a software suite developed for advanced analytics, multivariate analysis, business intelligence, data management, and predictive analytics. When you pair SAS with the CData ODBC Driver for Confluence, you gain database-like access to live Confluence data from SAS, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. This article explains how to create a library for Confluence in SAS and create a simple report based on real-time Confluence data.

The CData ODBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Confluence data in SAS due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SAS 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 easily visualize and analyze Confluence data in SAS.

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 (the ODBC Driver for Confluence must be installed on the machine hosting the SAS System).

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).

Create a Confluence Library in SAS

Connect to Confluence in SAS by adding a library based on the CData ODBC Driver for Confluence.

1. Open SAS and expand Libraries in the Explorer pane.
2. In the Active Libraries window, right-click and select New.
3. Name your library (odbclib), select ODBC as the Engine, and click to Enable at startup (if you want the library to persist between sessions).
4. Set Data Source to the DSN you previously configured and click OK. 👁 Creating a library for Confluence in SAS.
   

Create a View from a Confluence Query

SAS natively supports querying data either using a low-code, point-and-click Query tool or programmatically with PROC SQL and a custom SQL query. When you create a View in SAS, the defining query is executed each time the view is queried. This means that you always query live Confluence data for reports, charts, and analytics.

Using the Query Tool

1. In SAS, click Tools -> Query
2. Select the table sources and the table(s) you wish to pull data from. Then, click OK. 👁 Selecting table(s) to visualize.
   
3. Select columns and right-click to add filtering, ordering, grouping, etc. 👁 Selecting columns(s) to visualize and configuring the query.
   
4. Create a local view to contain the query results by right-clicking the SQL Query Tool window, selecting Show Query, and clicking Create View. Name the View and click OK. 👁 Create a local view to work with Confluence data.
   

Using PROC SQL

1. In SAS, navigate to the Editor window.
2. Use PROC SQL to query the data and create a local view.
   NOTE: This procedure creates a view in the Work library. You can optionally specify a library in the create view statement.

   proc sql;
    create view pages_view as
    select 
    key, 
    name 
    from 
    odbclib.pages 
    where 
    Id = '10000';
   quit;
   

3. Click Run -> Submit to execute the query and create a local view.

Report On or Visualize Confluence Data in SAS

With a local view created, you can report, visualize, or otherwise analyze Confluence data using the powerful SAS features. Print a simple report using PROC PRINT and create a basic graph based on the data using PROC GCHART.

Print an HTML Report

1. In SAS, navigate to the Editor window.
2. Use PROC PRINT to print an HTML report for the Confluence Pages data.

   proc print data=pages;
    title "Confluence Pages Data";
   run;
   

   👁 A simple Confluence data report.
   

Print a Chart

1. In SAS, navigate to the Editor window.
2. Use PROC GCHART to create a chart for the Pages data.

   proc gchart data=pages;
    pie key / sumvar=name
    value=arrow
    percent=arrow
    noheading
    percent=inside plabel=(height=12pt)
    slice=inside value=none
    name='PagesChart';
   run;
   

   👁 A simple Confluence data chart.