ETL Anaplan in Oracle Data Integrator

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
This article shows how to transfer Anaplan data into a data warehouse using Oracle Data Integrator.

Leverage existing skills by using the JDBC standard to connect to Anaplan: Through drop-in integration into ETL tools like Oracle Data Integrator (ODI), the CData JDBC Driver for Anaplan connects real-time Anaplan data to your data warehouse, business intelligence, and Big Data technologies.

JDBC connectivity enables you to work with Anaplan just as you would any other database in ODI. As with an RDBMS, you can use the driver to connect directly to the Anaplan APIs in real time instead of working with flat files.

This article covers a JDBC-based ETL -- Anaplan to Oracle. After reverse engineering a data model of Anaplan entities, you will create a mapping and select a data loading strategy -- since the driver supports SQL-92, this last step can easily be accomplished by selecting the built-in SQL to SQL Loading Knowledge Module.

Install the Driver

To install the driver, copy the driver JAR (cdata.jdbc.anaplan.jar) and .lic file (cdata.jdbc.anaplan.lic), located in the installation folder, into the ODI appropriate directory:

  • UNIX/Linux without Agent: ~/.odi/oracledi/userlib
  • UNIX/Linux with Agent: ~/.odi/oracledi/userlib and $ODI_HOME/odi/agent/lib
  • Windows without Agent: %APPDATA%\Roaming\odi\oracledi\userlib
  • Windows with Agent: %APPDATA%\odi\oracledi\userlib and %APPDATA%\odi\agent\lib

Restart ODI to complete the installation.

Reverse Engineer a Model

Reverse engineering the model retrieves metadata about the driver's relational view of Anaplan data. After reverse engineering, you can query real-time Anaplan data and create mappings based on Anaplan tables.

  1. In ODI, connect to your repository and click New -> Model and Topology Objects.
  2. On the Model screen of the resulting dialog, enter the following information:
    • Name: Enter Anaplan.
    • Technology: Select Generic SQL (for ODI Version 12.2+, select Microsoft SQL Server).
    • Logical Schema: Enter Anaplan.
    • Context: Select Global.
  3. On the Data Server screen of the resulting dialog, enter the following information:
    • Name: Enter Anaplan.
    • Driver List: Select Oracle JDBC Driver.
    • Driver: Enter cdata.jdbc.anaplan.AnaplanDriver
    • URL: Enter the JDBC URL containing the connection string.

      Authenticating to Anaplan

      The driver supports authenticating with Basic, Certificate, or OAuth. In every case, set Region to the region where your Anaplan account data is hosted (e.g., US1, which is the default).

      Using Basic Authentication

      Set AuthScheme to Basic, then supply your Anaplan User and Password. If your workspace uses single sign-on (SSO), you must be assigned as an Exception User to use Basic authentication.

      Using Certificate Authentication

      Set AuthScheme to Certificate, then supply the Certificate, CertificateType, and PrivateKey properties (and the matching CertificatePassword / PrivateKeyPassword if either is encrypted). The certificate must be a CA-issued X.509 certificate registered with your Anaplan tenant administrator.

      Using OAuth Authentication

      Register a custom OAuth application in Anaplan, then set the following properties:

      • OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
      • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
      • CallbackURL: The redirect URI defined when you registered your application.
      • InitiateOAuth: Set to GETANDREFRESH to have the driver manage the OAuth token exchange and refresh automatically.

      See the Getting Started chapter of the help documentation for a guide to creating a custom OAuth app and using OAuth.

      Built-in Connection String Designer

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

      java -jar cdata.jdbc.anaplan.jar
      

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

      Below is a typical connection string:

      jdbc:anaplan:OAuthClientId=your_client_id;OAuthClientSecret=your_client_secret;CallbackURL=your_callback_url;Region=US1;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;
      
  4. On the Physical Schema screen, enter the following information:
    • Name: Select from the Drop Down menu.
    • Database (Catalog): Enter CData.
    • Owner (Schema): If you select a Schema for Anaplan, enter the Schema selected, otherwise enter Anaplan.
    • Database (Work Catalog): Enter CData.
    • Owner (Work Schema): If you select a Schema for Anaplan, enter the Schema selected, otherwise enter Anaplan.
  5. In the opened model click Reverse Engineer to retrieve the metadata for Anaplan tables.

Edit and Save Anaplan Data

After reverse engineering you can now work with Anaplan data in ODI. To view Anaplan data, expand the Models accordion in the Designer navigator, right-click a table, and click View data.

Create an ETL Project

Follow the steps below to create an ETL from Anaplan. You will load Sales entities into the sample data warehouse included in the ODI Getting Started VM.

  1. Open SQL Developer and connect to your Oracle database. Right-click the node for your database in the Connections pane and click new SQL Worksheet.

    Alternatively you can use SQLPlus. From a command prompt enter the following:

    sqlplus / as sysdba
    
  2. Enter the following query to create a new target table in the sample data warehouse, which is in the ODI_DEMO schema. The following query defines a few columns that match the Sales table in Anaplan:
    CREATE TABLE ODI_DEMO.TRG_SALES (PRODUCT NUMBER(20,0),Region VARCHAR2(255));
    
  3. In ODI expand the Models accordion in the Designer navigator and double-click the Sales Administration node in the ODI_DEMO folder. The model is opened in the Model Editor.
  4. Click Reverse Engineer. The TRG_SALES table is added to the model.
  5. Right-click the Mappings node in your project and click New Mapping. Enter a name for the mapping and clear the Create Empty Dataset option. The Mapping Editor is displayed.
  6. Drag the TRG_SALES table from the Sales Administration model onto the mapping.
  7. Drag the Sales table from the Anaplan model onto the mapping.
  8. Click the source connector point and drag to the target connector point. The Attribute Matching dialog is displayed. For this example, use the default options. The target expressions are then displayed in the properties for the target columns.
  9. Open the Physical tab of the Mapping Editor and click SALES_AP in TARGET_GROUP.
  10. In the SALES_AP properties, select LKM SQL to SQL (Built-In) on the Loading Knowledge Module tab.

You can then run the mapping to load Anaplan data into Oracle.

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the Anaplan Driver to get started:

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