How to connect PolyBase to PayPal

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 PayPal, you get access to your PayPal data directly alongside your SQL Server data. This article describes creating an external data source and external tables to grant access to live PayPal 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 PayPal data using PolyBase due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SQL Server to PayPal, the driver pushes down supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to PayPal 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 PayPal data, using a single query to pull data from distributed sources.

Connect to PayPal

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 PayPal Sys is created automatically).

The provider surfaces tables from two PayPal APIs. The APIs use different authentication methods.

• The REST API uses the OAuth standard. To authenticate to the REST API, you will need to set the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL properties.
• The Classic API requires Signature API credentials. To authenticate to the Classic API, you will need to obtain an API username, password, and signature.

See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to obtaining the necessary API credentials.

To select the API you want to work with, you can set the Schema property to REST or SOAP. By default the SOAP schema will be used.

For testing purposes you can set UseSandbox to true and use sandbox credentials.

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

Create an External Data Source for PayPal 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 PayPal data.

NOTE: IDENTITY and SECRET correspond with the User and Password properties for PayPal.

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL paypal_creds
WITH IDENTITY = 'paypal_username', SECRET = 'paypal_password';

Create an External Data Source for PayPal

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

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

For PayPal, 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_paypal_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData PayPal Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = paypal_creds
);

Create External Tables for PayPal

After creating the external data source, use CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statements to link to PayPal data from your SQL Server instance. The table column definitions must match those exposed by the CData ODBC Driver for PayPal. 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 PayPal Transactions would look similar to the following:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE Transactions(
  Date [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  GrossAmount [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='Transactions',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_paypal_source
);

Having created external tables for PayPal 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 PayPal, freeing up local resources and computing power. Download a free, 30-day trial of the ODBC Driver for PayPal and start working with live PayPal data alongside your SQL Server data today.