Use the CData ODBC Driver for Exact Online in MicroStrategy Desktop

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

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

Connect to Exact Online as an ODBC Data Source

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

Exact Online uses the OAuth authentication standard. You can use the embedded OAuth credentials or you can register an OAuth app with Exact to obtain your own. In addition to the OAuth values, provide the Region. If Division is not set, the default Division is determined.

See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for more information.

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 Exact Online 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 ExactOnline Sys]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Exact Online
Description = My Description
Region = 'United States'
Division = 5512
InitiateOAuth = GETANDREFRESH

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

Connect to and Visualize Exact Online Data using MicroStrategy Desktop

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

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

   SELECT * FROM Accounts
   

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

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