Use the CData ODBC Driver for YouTube Analytics in MicroStrategy Desktop

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

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

Connect to YouTube Analytics as an ODBC Data Source

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

YouTube Analytics uses the OAuth authentication standard. You can use the embedded CData OAuth credentials or you can register an application with Google to obtain your own.

In addition to the OAuth values, to access YouTube Analytics data set ChannelId to the Id of a YouTube channel. You can obtain the channel Id in the advanced account settings for your channel. If not specified, the channel of the currently authenticated user will be used.

If you want to generate content owner reports, specify the ContentOwnerId property. This is the Id of the copyright holder for content in YouTube's rights management system. The content owner is the person or organization that claims videos and sets their monetization policy.

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 YouTube Analytics 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 YouTubeAnalytics Sys]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for YouTube Analytics
Description = My Description
ContentOwnerId = MyContentOwnerId
ChannelId = MyChannelId
InitiateOAuth = GETANDREFRESH

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

Connect to and Visualize YouTube Analytics Data using MicroStrategy Desktop

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

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

   SELECT * FROM Groups
   

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

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