Use the CData ODBC Driver for Oracle SCM in MicroStrategy Desktop

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

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

Connect to Oracle SCM as an ODBC Data Source

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

The following connection properties are required to connect to Oracle SCM data.

• Url: The URL of the account that you want to connect to. Typically, this will be the URL of your Oracle Cloud service. For example, https://servername.fa.us2.oraclecloud.com.
• User: The username of your Oracle Cloud service account.
• Password: The password of your Oracle Cloud service account.

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 Oracle SCM 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 OracleSCM Sys]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Oracle SCM
Description = My Description
Url = https://myinstance.oraclecloud.com
User = user
Password = password

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

Connect to and Visualize Oracle SCM Data using MicroStrategy Desktop

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

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

   SELECT * FROM Carriers
   

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

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