Integrate with Avalara AvaTax Data in JReport Designer

The CData JDBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax data enables access to live data from dashboards and reports as if Avalara AvaTax were a relational database, allowing you to query Avalara AvaTax data using familiar SQL queries. This article shows how to connect to Avalara AvaTax data as a JDBC data source and create reports based on Avalara AvaTax data in JReport Designer.

Connect to Avalara AvaTax Data

1. Edit C:\JReport\Designer\bin\setenv.bat to add the location of the JAR file to the ADDCLASSPATH variable:

   ...
   set ADDCLASSPATH=%JAVAHOME%\lib\tools.jar;C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax 2016\lib\cdata.jdbc.avalaraavatax.jar;
   ...
   

2. Create a new data source by clicking File New Data Source.
3. In the resulting dialog, create a name for the data source (CData JDBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax), select JDBC, and click OK.
4. In the Get JDBC Connection Information dialog you will configure your connection to the JDBC driver:
   • Driver: Be sure that the Driver box is checked and fill in the name of the class for the driver: cdata.jdbc.avalaraavatax.AvalaraAvataxDriver
   • URL: Enter the JDBC URL. This starts with jdbc:avalaraavatax: and is followed by a semicolon-separated list of connection properties.

     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.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Avalara AvaTax JDBC Driver. Either 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.

     When you configure the JDBC URL, 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.

     Below is a typical JDBC URL:

     jdbc:avalaraavatax:User=MyUser;Password=MyPassword;
   • User: The username to authenticate with; typically left blank.
   • Password: The password to authenticate with; typically left blank.

5. In the Add Table dialog, select the tables you wish to include in your report (or in future reports using this data source) and click Add.

   Click Done once the dialog has completed loading the tables.

6. In the Catalog Browser, you can create the queries that you will use to populate your reports. You can do this now, or after you create your report. In either case, expand () the data source (CData JDBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax), right-click on Queries, and select Add Query.
7. In the Add Table/View/Query dialog, expand () the JDBC URL and Tables and select the table(s) you wish to use in the query and click OK.
8. In the Query Editor dialog, you can select the columns you wish to include or simply click the SQL button and manually input your own query. For example:

   SELECT Id, TotalTax FROM Transactions WHERE Code = '051349'
   

   With the query built, click OK to close the Query Editor dialog. At this point you are ready to add Avalara AvaTax data to a new or existing report.

   NOTE: Now that the query is built, you can create a Business View based on the query. With a Business View, you can create Web reports or library components based on the query. For more information on this, refer to the JReport tutorials.

Add Avalara AvaTax Data to a Report

You are now ready to create a report with Avalara AvaTax data.

1. Create a new report (File New Page Report) or open the Chart Wizard for an existing report.
2. Select the Query (or create a new one; see above).
3. Assign a Category and Value for the chart from the columns in your Query and click Finish.
4. Click the View tab for your report to see the chart.