Use the CData ODBC Driver for Exa in MicroStrategy Desktop

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

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

Connect to Exa as an ODBC Data Source

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

Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the Exa Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\Exa.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Exa (see below).

Exa API Profile Settings

Visit dashboard.exa.ai, sign in or create an account, and generate an API key from your API settings.

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 Exa 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 API Sys]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Exa
Description = My Description
Profile = C:\profiles\Exa.apip
ProfileSettings = 'APIKey = your_api_key'

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

Connect to and Visualize Exa Data using MicroStrategy Desktop

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

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

   SELECT * FROM Answer
   

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

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