How to connect PolyBase to Google Analytics

PolyBase for SQL Server allows you to query external data by using the same Transact-SQL syntax used to query a database table. When paired with the CData ODBC Driver for Google Analytics, you get access to your Google Analytics data directly alongside your SQL Server data. This article describes creating an external data source and external tables to grant access to live Google Analytics data using T-SQL queries.

NOTE: PolyBase is only available on SQL Server 19 and above, and only for Standard SQL Server.

The CData ODBC drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live Google Analytics data using PolyBase due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SQL Server to Google Analytics, the driver pushes down supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Google Analytics and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. And with PolyBase, you can also join SQL Server data with Google Analytics data, using a single query to pull data from distributed sources.

Connect to Google Analytics

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 create an external data source in SQL Server using PolyBase, configure a System DSN (CData Google Analytics Sys is created automatically).

Google uses the OAuth authentication standard. To access Google APIs on behalf on individual users, you can use the embedded credentials or you can register your own OAuth app.

OAuth also enables you to use a service account to connect on behalf of users in a Google Apps domain. To authenticate with a service account, you will need to register an application to obtain the OAuth JWT values.

In addition to the OAuth values, set Profile to the profile you want to connect to. This can be set to either the Id or website URL for the Profile. If not specified, the first Profile returned will be used.

Click "Test Connection" to ensure that the DSN is connected to Google Analytics properly. Navigate to the Tables tab to review the table definitions for Google Analytics.

Create an External Data Source for Google Analytics Data

After configuring the connection, you need to create a master encryption key and a credential database for the external data source.

Creating a Master Encryption Key

Execute the following SQL command to create a new master key, 'ENCRYPTION,' to encrypt the credentials for the external data source.

CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'password';

Creating a Credential Database

Execute the following SQL command to create credentials for the external data source connected to Google Analytics data.

NOTE: Since Google Analytics does not require a User or Password to authenticate, you may use whatever values you wish for IDENTITY and SECRET.

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL googleanalytics_creds
WITH IDENTITY = 'username', SECRET = 'password';

Create an External Data Source for Google Analytics

Execute a CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE SQL command to create an external data source for Google Analytics with PolyBase:

• Set the LOCATION parameter , using the DSN and credentials configured earlier.

For Google Analytics, set SERVERNAME to the URL or address for your server (e.g. 'localhost' or '127.0.0.1' for local servers; the remote URL for remote servers). Leave PORT empty. PUSHDOWN is set to ON by default, meaning the ODBC Driver can leverage server-side processing for complex queries.

CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE cdata_googleanalytics_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData Google Analytics Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = googleanalytics_creds
);

Create External Tables for Google Analytics

After creating the external data source, use CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statements to link to Google Analytics data from your SQL Server instance. The table column definitions must match those exposed by the CData ODBC Driver for Google Analytics. You can refer to the Tables tab of the DSN Configuration Wizard to see the table definition.

Sample CREATE TABLE Statement

The statement to create an external table based on a Google Analytics Traffic would look similar to the following:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE Traffic(
  Browser [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  Sessions [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='Traffic',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_googleanalytics_source
);

Having created external tables for Google Analytics in your SQL Server instance, you are now able to query local and remote data simultaneously. Thanks to built-in query processing in the CData ODBC Driver, you know that as much query processing as possible is being pushed to Google Analytics, freeing up local resources and computing power. Download a free, 30-day trial of the ODBC Driver for Google Analytics and start working with live Google Analytics data alongside your SQL Server data today.