Analyze Aha Data in R

Access Aha data with pure R script and standard SQL on any machine where R and Java can be installed. You can use the CData JDBC Driver for Aha and the RJDBC package to work with remote Aha data in R. By using the CData Driver, you are leveraging a driver written for industry-proven standards to access your data in the popular, open-source R language. This article shows how to use the driver to execute SQL queries to Aha and visualize Aha data by calling standard R functions.

Install R

You can match the driver's performance gains from multi-threading and managed code by running the multithreaded Microsoft R Open or by running open R linked with the BLAS/LAPACK libraries. This article uses Microsoft R Open 3.2.3, which is preconfigured to install packages from the Jan. 1, 2016 snapshot of the CRAN repository. This snapshot ensures reproducibility.

Load the RJDBC Package

To use the driver, download the RJDBC package. After installing the RJDBC package, the following line loads the package:

Connect to Aha as a JDBC Data Source

You will need the following information to connect to Aha as a JDBC data source:

• Driver Class: Set this to cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver
• Classpath: Set this to the location of the driver JAR. By default this is the lib subfolder of the installation folder.

The DBI functions, such as dbConnect and dbSendQuery, provide a unified interface for writing data access code in R. Use the following line to initialize a DBI driver that can make JDBC requests to the CData JDBC Driver for Aha:

You can now use DBI functions to connect to Aha and execute SQL queries. Initialize the JDBC connection with the dbConnect function.

Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the Aha! Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\aha.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Aha! (see below).

Aha! API Profile Settings

The Aha! API uses OAuth-based authentication.

You will first need to register an OAuth app with Aha!. This can be done from your Aha! account under 'Settings' > 'Personal' > 'Developer' > 'OAuth Applications'. Additionally, you will need to set the Domain, found in the domain name of your Aha account. For example if your Aha account is acmeinc.aha.io, then the Domain should be 'acmeinc'.

After setting the following in the connection string, you are ready to connect:

• AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
• InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to manage the process to obtain the OAuthAccessToken.
• OAuthClientId: Set this to the client_id that is specified in you app settings.
• OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client_secret that is specified in you app settings.
• CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI you specified in your app settings.
• Domain: Set this in the ProfileSettings to your Aha domain.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

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

Below is a sample dbConnect call, including a typical JDBC connection string:

Schema Discovery

The driver models Aha APIs as relational tables, views, and stored procedures. Use the following line to retrieve the list of tables:

Execute SQL Queries

You can use the dbGetQuery function to execute any SQL query supported by the Aha API:

You can view the results in a data viewer window with the following command:

Plot Aha Data

You can now analyze Aha data with any of the data visualization packages available in the CRAN repository. You can create simple bar plots with the built-in bar plot function: