Use the CData ODBC Driver for Kintone in MicroStrategy Desktop

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

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

Connect to Kintone as an ODBC Data Source

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

In addition to the authentication values, set the following parameters to connect to and retrieve data from Kintone:

• Url: The URL of your account.
• GuestSpaceId: Optional. Set this when using a guest space.

Authenticating with Kintone

Kintone supports the following authentication methods.

Using Password Authentication

You must set the following to authenticate:

• User: The username of your account.
• Password: The password of your account.

Using Basic Authentication

If the basic authentication security feature is set on the domain, supply the additional login credentials with BasicAuthUser and BasicAuthPassword. Basic authentication requires these credentials in addition to User and Password.

Using Client SSL

Instead of basic authentication, you can specify a client certificate to authenticate. Set SSLClientCert, SSLClientCertType, SSLClientCertSubject, and SSLClientCertPassword. Additionally, set User and Password to your login credentials.

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 Kintone 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 Kintone Sys]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Kintone
Description = My Description
User = myuseraccount
Password = mypassword
Url = http://subdomain.domain.com
GuestSpaceId = myspaceid

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

Connect to and Visualize Kintone Data using MicroStrategy Desktop

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

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

   SELECT * FROM Comments
   

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

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