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⇱ Analyze QuickBooks Online Data in Cognos Analytics

Analyze QuickBooks Online Data in Cognos Analytics

👁 Dibyendu Datta
Dibyendu Datta
Lead Technology Evangelist
Use CData Connect AI to connect to QuickBooks Online Data from Cognos Analytics and analyze live QuickBooks Online data.

Cognos Analytics, powered by IBM Watson®, empowers users to cleanse and establish connections with their data while creating visualizations. When integrated with CData Connect AI, users gain immediate, real-time connectivity between cloud-based data sources and Cognos Analytics, facilitating data management, visualization, analytics, and more. This article provides step-by-step guidance on connecting to QuickBooks Online via CData Connect AI and subsequently analyzing QuickBooks Online data within Cognos Analytics.

NOTE: These instructions require Cognos Analytics 11.2.4 or higher

CData Connect AI offers a dedicated cloud-to-cloud interface for QuickBooks Online, enabling users to perform real-time analysis on QuickBooks Online data within Cognos without the need to replicate data to a natively supported database. Equipped with built-in optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect AI efficiently directs all supported SQL operations, including filters and JOINs, directly to QuickBooks Online. This harnesses server-side processing to promptly provide the requested QuickBooks Online data.

About QuickBooks Online Data Integration

CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from QuickBooks Online. Customers use CData connectivity to:

  • Realize high-performance data reads thanks to push-down query optimization for complex operations like filters and aggregations.
  • Read, write, update, and delete QuickBooks Online data.
  • Run reports, download attachments, and send or void invoices directly from code using SQL stored procedures.
  • Connect securely using OAuth and modern cryptography, including TLS 1.2, SHA-256, and ECC.

Many users access live QuickBooks Online data from preferred analytics tools like Power BI and Excel, directly from databases with federated access, and use CData solutions to easily integrate QuickBooks Online data with automated workflows for business-to-business communications.

For more information on how customers are solving problems with CData's QuickBooks Online solutions, refer to our blog: https://www.cdata.com/blog/360-view-of-your-customers.


Getting Started


Configure QuickBooks Online Connectivity for Cognos Analytics

Connectivity to QuickBooks Online from Cognos Analytics is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with QuickBooks Online data from Cognos Analytics, we start by creating and configuring a QuickBooks Online connection.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
    2. 👁 Adding a Connection
  2. Select "QuickBooks Online" from the Add Connection panel
    3. 👁 Selecting a data source
  3. QuickBooks Online uses OAuth to authenticate. Click "Sign in" to authenticate with QuickBooks Online. 👁 Authenticating with OAuth (Salesforce is shown).
  4. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add QuickBooks Online Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

  1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
  2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
  3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
  4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to QuickBooks Online data from Cognos Analytics.

Connect to QuickBooks Online from Cognos Analytics

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Cognos Analytics to analyze live QuickBooks Online data.

Download and install the CData Connect AI JDBC driver

  1. Open the Integrations page of CData Connect AI.
  2. Search for and select JDBC.
  3. Download and run the setup file.
  4. When the installation is complete, copy the JAR file (cdata.jdbc.connect.jar) from the installation directory (e.g., C:\Program Files\CData\JDBC Driver for CData Connect\lib) to the "drivers" folder in your Cognos Analytics installation directory.

Configure the Connection to CData Connect AI

  1. Open IBM Cognos and navigate to Manage > Data server connections.
  2. Click the icon to add a data server.
  3. Select CData Connect AI.
  4. Set JDBC URL to the appropriate connection string. For example: 
     jdbc:connect:AuthScheme=Basic;user=username;password=PAT;
  5. Set Driver class name to "cdata.jdbc.connect.ConnectDriver"
  6. Create and store authenticate credentials by selecting an authentication method
    • Set Username to your CData Connect AI username (e.g., [email protected])
    • Set Password to the PAT you previously generated.
  7. Click Test connection to confirm that the connection succeeds. 👁 Connecting to CData Connect AI from Cognos Analytics

At this point, you are ready to analyze and visualize QuickBooks Online data in Cognos Analytics. For more information about using Cognos Analytics, please refer to the Cognos Analytics documentation.

Live Access to QuickBooks Online Data for Analytics

Now you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live QuickBooks Online data from Cognos Analytics. You can create new visualizations, build reports, and more — without replicating QuickBooks Online data.

Try CData Connect AI and get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.