Use the CData JDBC Driver for REST in MicroStrategy Web

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

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

Connect to and Visualize REST Data using MicroStrategy Web

You can connect to REST in MicroStrategy Web by adding a data source based on the CData JDBC Driver for REST.^* Before you begin, you will need install the JDBC Driver for REST on the machine hosting the MicroStrategy Intelligence Server that your instance of MicroStrategy Web is connected to. Once you have created a data source you can build dynamic visualizations of REST data in MicroStrategy Web.

1. Open MicroStrategy Web and select your project.
2. Click Add External Data, select Databases, and use Select Tables as the Import Option.
3. In the Import from Tables wizard, click to add a new Data Source.
4. Select Generic in the Database menu and select Generic DBMS in the Version menu.
5. Click the link to show the connection string and opt to edit the connection string. In the Driver menu, select MicroStrategy Cassandra ODBC Driver (MicroStrategy requires a certified driver to interface through JDBC, the actual driver will not be used).
6. Set the connection string to the following: JDBC;MSTR_JDBC_JAR_FOLDER=PATH\TO\JAR\;DRIVER=cdata.jdbc.rest.RESTDriver;URL={jdbc:rest:DataModel=Relational;URI=C:/people.xml;Format=XML;};

   See the Getting Started chapter in the data provider documentation to authenticate to your data source: The data provider models REST APIs as bidirectional database tables and XML/JSON files as read-only views (local files, files stored on popular cloud services, and FTP servers). The major authentication schemes are supported, including HTTP Basic, Digest, NTLM, OAuth, and FTP. See the Getting Started chapter in the data provider documentation for authentication guides.

   After setting the URI and providing any authentication values, set Format to "XML" or "JSON" and set DataModel to more closely match the data representation to the structure of your data.

   The DataModel property is the controlling property over how your data is represented into tables and toggles the following basic configurations.

   • Document (default): Model a top-level, document view of your REST data. The data provider returns nested elements as aggregates of data.
   • FlattenedDocuments: Implicitly join nested documents and their parents into a single table.
   • Relational: Return individual, related tables from hierarchical data. The tables contain a primary key and a foreign key that links to the parent document.

   See the Modeling REST Data chapter for more information on configuring the relational representation. You will also find the sample data used in the following examples. The data includes entries for people, the cars they own, and various maintenance services performed on those cars.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.rest.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.

7. Right-click on the new data source, and choose Edit catalog options.
8. Edit the SQL Statement to SELECT * FROM SYS_SCHEMAS to read the metadata from the JDBC Driver.
9. Select the new data source to view the available tables. You may need to manually click the search icon in the Available Tables section to see the tables.
10. Drag tables into the pane to import them. Note: Since we create a live connection, we can import whole tables and utilize the filtering and aggregation features native to the MicroStrategy products to customize our datasets.
11. Click Finish, choose to the option to connect live, save the query, and choose the option to create a new dossier. Live connections are possible and effective, thanks to high-performance data processing native to CData JDBC drivers.
12. Choose a visualization, choose fields to display and apply any filters to create a new visualization of REST 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 REST, 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.
13. Once you have finished configuring the dossier, click File -> Save.

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

Note: Connecting using a JDBC Driver requires a 3- or 4-Tier Architecture.