Connect to TaxJar Data in RapidMiner

This article shows how you can easily integrate the CData JDBC driver for TaxJar into your processes in RapidMiner. This article uses the CData JDBC Driver for TaxJar to transfer TaxJar data to a process in RapidMiner.

Connect to TaxJar in RapidMiner as a JDBC Data Source

You can follow the procedure below to establish a JDBC connection to TaxJar:

1. Add a new database driver for TaxJar: Click Connections -> Manage Database Drivers.
2. In the resulting wizard, click the Add button and enter a name for the connection.
3. Enter the prefix for the JDBC URL:

   jdbc:taxjar:
   

4. Enter the path to the cdata.jdbc.taxjar.jar file, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
5. Enter the driver class:

   cdata.jdbc.taxjar.TaxJarDriver
   

   👁 The JDBC driver configuration. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
6. Create a new TaxJar connection: Click Connections -> Manage Database Connections.
7. Enter a name for your connection.
8. For Database System, select the TaxJar driver you configured previously.
9. Enter your connection string in the Host box.

   To authenticate to the TaxJar API, first obtain the API Key from the TaxJar UI.

   NOTE: the API is available only for Professional and Premium TaxJar plans.

   If you already have a Professional or Premium plan you can find the API Key by logging in the TaxJar UI and navigating to Account -> TaxJar API. After obtaining the API Key, you can set it in the APIKey connection property.

   Additional Notes

   • By default, the CData connector will retrieve data of the last 3 months in cases where the entity support date range filtering. You can set StartDate to specify the minimum creation date of the data retrieved.
   • If the API Key has been created for a sandbox API account please set UseSandbox to true, but not all endpoints will work as expected. For more information, refer to the TaxJar developer documentation.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

   For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the TaxJar JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.taxjar.jar
   

   Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

   👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)
   

   A typical connection string is below:

   APIKey=3bb04218ef8t80efdf1739abf7257144;
   

10. Enter your username and password if necessary. 👁 The connection to the JDBC data source. (Salesforce is shown.)
    

You can now use your TaxJar connection with the various RapidMiner operators in your process. To retrieve TaxJar data, drag the Retrieve operator from the Operators view. 👁 A Retrieve operation to select data. (Salesforce is shown.)
With the Retrieve operator selected, you can then define which table to retrieve in the Parameters view by clicking the folder icon next to the "repository entry." In the resulting Repository Browser, you can expand your connection node to select the desired example set.

Finally, wire the output to the Retrieve process to a result, and run the process to see the TaxJar data.