Use the CData ODBC Driver for Zuora in MicroStrategy Web

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

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

Connect to Zuora as an ODBC Data Source

Information for connecting to Zuora follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments (the ODBC Driver for Zuora must be installed on the machine hosting the connected MicroStrategy Intelligence Server).

Zuora uses the OAuth standard to authenticate users. See the online Help documentation for a full OAuth authentication guide.

Configuring Tenant property

In order to create a valid connection with the provider you need to choose one of the Tenant values (USProduction by default) which matches your account configuration. The following is a list with the available options:

• USProduction: Requests sent to https://rest.zuora.com.
• USAPISandbox: Requests sent to https://rest.apisandbox.zuora.com"
• USPerformanceTest: Requests sent to https://rest.pt1.zuora.com"
• EUProduction: Requests sent to https://rest.eu.zuora.com"
• EUSandbox: Requests sent to https://rest.sandbox.eu.zuora.com"

Selecting a Zuora Service

Two Zuora services are available: Data Query and AQuA API. By default ZuoraService is set to AQuADataExport.

DataQuery

The Data Query feature enables you to export data from your Zuora tenant by performing asynchronous, read-only SQL queries. We recommend to use this service for quick lightweight SQL queries.

Limitations

• The maximum number of input records per table after filters have been applied: 1,000,000
• The maximum number of output records: 100,000
• The maximum number of simultaneous queries submitted for execution per tenant: 5
• The maximum number of queued queries submitted for execution after reaching the limitation of simultaneous queries per tenant: 10
• The maximum processing time for each query in hours: 1
• The maximum size of memory allocated to each query in GB: 2
• The maximum number of indices when using Index Join, in other words, the maximum number of records being returned by the left table based on the unique value used in the WHERE clause when using Index Join: 20,000

AQuADataExport

AQuA API export is designed to export all the records for all the objects ( tables ). AQuA query jobs have the following limitations:

Limitations

• If a query in an AQuA job is executed longer than 8 hours, this job will be killed automatically.
• The killed AQuA job can be retried three times before returned as failed.

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 Zuora 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 Zuora Sys]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Zuora
Description = My Description
OAuthClientID = MyOAuthClientId
OAuthClientSecret = MyOAuthClientSecret
Tenant = USProduction
ZuoraService = DataQuery
InitiateOAuth = GETANDREFRESH

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

Connect to and Visualize Zuora Data using MicroStrategy Web

Once you have created a database instance in MicroStrategy Developer and connected it to a project, you can perform a data import of Zuora data from MicroStrategy Web. Alternatively, you can create a new data source based on the ODBC Driver.^*

1. Open MicroStrategy Web and select your project.
2. Click Add External Data, select Databases, and choose Select a Table as the Import Option.
3. In the Import from Tables wizard, click to add a new data source.
   • Select DSN Data Sources
   • Set the DSN property to the previously configured DSN (CData Zuora Sys)
   • Set the Version property to Generic DBMS
   • Set the User and Password properties (or use filler values)
   • Set the Data Source Name
   👁 Configuring the new Data Source
   
4. After creating the data source, click to edit the catalog options and set the following queries and click OK.
   • SQL statement to retrieve tables available in the data source

     SELECT
      CatalogName NAME_SPACE,
      TableName TAB_NAME
     FROM
      SYS_TABLES
      

   • SQL statement to retrieve columns for the selected tables

     SELECT DISTINCT 
      CatalogName NAME_SPACE, 
      TableName TAB_NAME, 
      ColumnName COL_NAME, 
      DataTypeName DATA_TYPE, 
      Length DATA_LEN, 
      NumericPrecision DATA_PREC, 
      NumericScale DATA_SCALE 
     FROM 
      SYS_TABLECOLUMNS 
     WHERE 
      TableName IN (#TABLE_LIST#) 
     ORDER BY
      1,2,3
      

5. Drag a table into the pane. 👁 Connecting to Zuora data.
   Note: Since we create a live connection, we can import whole tables and utilize the filtering and aggregation features native to the MicroStrategy products.
6. Click Finish, choose to the option to connect live, save the query, and choose the option to create a new dossier. 👁 Save the query and create a new dossier.
   
7. Choose a visualization, choose fields to display, and apply any filters to create a new visualization of Zuora data. Data types are discovered automatically through dynamic metadata discovery. Where possible, the complex queries generated by the filters and aggregations will be pushed down to Zuora, 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 Zuora data.
   
8. Once you have finished configuring the dossier, click File -> Save.

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

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Note: connecting using a ODBC driver requires a 3- or 4-tier architecture.