Connect to Avalara AvaTax Data in as an External Source in Dremio

The CData JDBC Driver for Avalara implements JDBC Standards and allows various applications, including Dremio, to work with live Avalara AvaTax data. Dremio is a data lakehouse platform designed to empower self-service, interactive analytics on the data lake. With the CData JDBC Driver, you can include live Avalara AvaTax data as a part of your enterprise data lake. This article describes how to connect to Avalara AvaTax data from Dremio as an External Source.

The CData JDBC Driver enables high-speed access to live Avalara AvaTax data in Dremio. Once you install the driver, authenticate with Avalara AvaTax and gain immediate access to Avalara AvaTax data within your data lake. By surfacing Avalara AvaTax data using native data types and handling complex filters, aggregations, & other operations automatically, the CData JDBC Driver grants seamless access to Avalara AvaTax data.

Build the ARP Connector

To use the CData JDBC Driver in Dremio, you need to build an Advanced Relation Pushdown (ARP) Connector. You can view the source code for the Connector on GitHub or download the ZIP file (GitHub.com) directly. Once you copy or extract the files, run the following command from the root directory of the connector (the directory containing the pom.xml file) to build the connector.

mvn clean install

Once the JAR file for the connector is built (in the target directory), you are ready to copy the ARP connector and JDBC Driver to your Dremio instance.

Installing the Connector and JDBC Driver

Install the ARP Connector to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/ and the JDBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/3rdparty. You can use commands similar to the following:

ARP Connector

docker cp PATH\TO\dremio-avalaraavatax-plugin-20.0.0.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/

JDBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax

docker cp PATH\TO\cdata.jdbc.avalaraavatax.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/3rdparty/

Connecting to Avalara AvaTax

Avalara AvaTax will now appear as an External Source option in Dremio. The ARP Connector built uses a JDBC URL to connect to Avalara AvaTax data. The JDBC Driver has a built-in connection string designer that you can use (see below).

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

java -jar cdata.jdbc.avalaraavatax.jar

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

The primary method for performing basic authentication is to provide your login credentials, as follows:

• User: Set this to your username.
• Password: Set this to your password.

Optionally, if you are making use of a sandbox environment, set the following:

• UseSandbox: Set this to true if you are authenticating with a sandbox account.

Authenticating Using Account Number and License Key

Alternatively, you can authenticate using your account number and license key. Connect to data using the following:

• AccountId: Set this to your Account Id. The Account Id is listed in the upper right hand corner of the admin console.
• LicenseKey: Set this to your Avalara Avatax license key. You can generate a license key by logging into Avalara Avatax as an account administrator and navigating to Settings -> Reset License Key.

NOTE: To use the JDBC Driver in Dremio, you will need a license (full or trial) and a Runtime Key (RTK). For more information on obtaining this license (or a trial), contact our sales team.

Add the Runtime Key (RTK) to the JDBC URL. You will end up with a JDBC URL similar to the following:

jdbc:avalaraavatax:RTK=5246...;User=MyUser;Password=MyPassword;

Access Avalara AvaTax as an External Source

To add Avalara AvaTax as an External Source, click to add a new source and select AvalaraAvatax. Copy the JDBC URL and paste it into the New AvalaraAvatax Source wizard.

Save the connection and you are ready to query live Avalara AvaTax data in Dremio, easily incorporating Avalara AvaTax data into your data lake.

More Information & Free Trial

Using the CData JDBC Driver for Avalara in Dremio, you can incorporate live Avalara AvaTax data into your data lake. Check out our CData JDBC Driver for Avalara page for more information about connecting to Avalara AvaTax. Download a free, 30 day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Avalara and get started today.