Access Azure Analysis Services Data in Mule Applications Using the CData JDBC Driver

The CData JDBC Driver for Azure Analysis Services connects Azure Analysis Services data to Mule applications enabling read functionality with familiar SQL queries. The JDBC Driver allows users to easily create Mule applications to backup, transform, report, and analyze Azure Analysis Services data.

This article demonstrates how to use the CData JDBC Driver for Azure Analysis Services inside of a Mule project to create a Web interface for Azure Analysis Services data. The application created allows you to request Azure Analysis Services data using an HTTP request and have the results returned as JSON. The exact same procedure outlined below can be used with any CData JDBC Driver to create a Web interface for the 200+ available data sources.

1. Create a new Mule Project in Anypoint Studio.
2. Add an HTTP Connector to the Message Flow.
3. Configure the address for the HTTP Connector.
4. Add a Database Select Connector to the same flow, after the HTTP Connector.
5. Create a new Connection (or edit an existing one) and configure the properties.
   • Set Connection to "Generic Connection"
   • Select the CData JDBC Driver JAR file in the Required Libraries section (e.g. cdata.jdbc.aas.jar).
   • Set the URL to the connection string for Azure Analysis Services

     To connect to Azure Analysis Services, set the Url property to a valid server, for instance, asazure://southcentralus.asazure.windows.net/server, in addition to authenticating. Optionally, set Database to distinguish which Azure database on the server to connect to.

     Azure Analysis Services uses the OAuth authentication standard. OAuth requires the authenticating user to interact with Azure Analysis Services using the browser. You can connect without setting any connection properties for your user credentials. See the Help documentation for more information.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.aas.jar

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

   • Set the Driver class name to cdata.jdbc.aas.AASDriver.
   • Click Test Connection.
6. Set the SQL Query Text to a SQL query to request Azure Analysis Services data. For example: SELECT Country, Education FROM Customer WHERE Country = 'Australia'
7. Add a Transform Message Component to the flow.
8. Set the Output script to the following to convert the payload to JSON:

   %dw 2.0
   output application/json
   ---
   payload
           

9. To view your Azure Analysis Services data, navigate to the address you configured for the HTTP Connector (localhost:8081 by default): http://localhost:8081. The Azure Analysis Services data is available as JSON in your Web browser and any other tools capable of consuming JSON endpoints.

At this point, you have a simple Web interface for working with Azure Analysis Services data (as JSON data) in custom apps and a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools. Download a free, 30 day trial of the JDBC Driver for Azure Analysis Services and see the CData difference in your Mule Applications today.