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URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/taxjar-odbc-active-query-builder.rst

โ‡ฑ Rapidly Develop TaxJar-Driven Apps with Active Query Builder


Rapidly Develop TaxJar-Driven Apps with Active Query Builder

๐Ÿ‘ Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Leverage the Active Query Builder SQL interface and .NET data access to create data-driven WinForms and ASP.NET apps backed by TaxJar.

Write standard .NET to expose TaxJar data through an SQL interface: Active Query Builder helps developers write SQL interfaces; the CData ODBC Driver for TaxJar enables standards-based access to TaxJar. This integration uses the Microsoft ADO.NET Provider for ODBC as a bridge between the ODBC Driver and the Active Query Builder objects to build a visual SQL composer.

Connect to TaxJar as an ODBC Data Source

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.

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.

Use SQL to Interact with TaxJar

Follow the steps below to create a WinForms visual query builder.

  1. Open Active Query Builder for .NET WinForms. ๐Ÿ‘ Opening Active Query Builder.
  2. In the new Windows Forms project go to the "File" menu and click "Connect..."
  3. Under Database Connections, click "Add..." ๐Ÿ‘ Adding a new Connection.
  4. Set your desired Connection Name (e.g. CData TaxJar), set Connection Type to "ODBC" and locate your previously configured DSN in the "User/System" DSN dropdown. ๐Ÿ‘ Selecting a previously configured DSN (Amazon Athena is shown).
  5. Click "OK" to save the new connection.
  6. Back in the Database Connection wizard, select the newly created connection and click "OK." ๐Ÿ‘ A newly added Connection (Amazon Athena is shown).
  7. Click "File" > "New Query" to create a QueryBuilder

You can now build queries visually: Double-click a table in the Columns Pane Area and an entity/relationship diagram is displayed in the Query Building Area. Columns that you select in the diagram are added to the query.

๐Ÿ‘ Building queries interactively with Active Query Builder.

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the TaxJar ODBC Driver to get started:

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TaxJar ODBC Driver

The TaxJar ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from TaxJar, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access TaxJar data like you would a database - read, write, and update TaxJar Transactions, TaxAmounts, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.