Use the CData ODBC Driver for Hugging Face in MicroStrategy Desktop

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

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

Connect to Hugging Face as an ODBC Data Source

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

HuggingFace Hub uses token-based authentication to enable access to its API. The API provides access to machine learning models, datasets, spaces, papers, and other resources on the HuggingFace Hub platform.

Using API Key Authentication

To authenticate to HuggingFace Hub, you will need to provide an API Key (Access Token). To obtain your access token:

1. Log in to your HuggingFace account at https://huggingface.co
2. Navigate to Settings > Access Tokens
3. Click "New token" to create a new access token
4. Select the appropriate permissions (read or write)
5. Copy the token value

After obtaining your access token, set the following connection properties:

• AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
• APIKey: Set this to your HuggingFace access token.

Example connection string

Profile=C:\profiles\HuggingFace.apip;ProfileSettings='APIKey=hf_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx';

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 Hugging Face 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 Hugging Face
Description = My Description
Profile = C:\profiles\HuggingFace.apip
ProfileSettings = 'APIKey = hf_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'

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

Connect to and Visualize Hugging Face Data using MicroStrategy Desktop

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

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

   SELECT * FROM Collections
   

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

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