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

Connect to Adobe 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 Adobe Analytics Sys is created automatically).

Adobe Analytics uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, you will need to create an app to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties. See the "Getting Started" section of the help documentation for a guide.

Retrieving GlobalCompanyId

GlobalCompanyId is a required connection property. If you do not know your Global Company ID, you can find it in the request URL for the users/me endpoint on the Swagger UI. After logging into the Swagger UI Url, expand the users endpoint and then click the GET users/me button. Click the Try it out and Execute buttons. Note your Global Company ID shown in the Request URL immediately preceding the users/me endpoint.

Retrieving Report Suite Id

Report Suite ID (RSID) is also a required connection property. In the Adobe Analytics UI, navigate to Admin -> Report Suites and you will get a list of your report suites along with their identifiers next to the name.

After setting the GlobalCompanyId, RSID and OAuth connection properties, you are ready to connect to Adobe Analytics.

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

Create an External Data Source for Adobe 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 Adobe Analytics data.

NOTE: Since Adobe 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 adobeanalytics_creds
WITH IDENTITY = 'username', SECRET = 'password';

Create an External Data Source for Adobe Analytics

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

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

For Adobe 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_adobeanalytics_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData Adobe Analytics Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = adobeanalytics_creds
);

Create External Tables for Adobe Analytics

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

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE AdsReport(
  Page [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  PageViews [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='AdsReport',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_adobeanalytics_source
);

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