Connect to Anaplan Data in Ruby

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Connect to Anaplan data in Ruby with ruby-dbi, dbd-odbc, and ruby-odbc.

The CData ODBC Driver for Anaplan makes it easy to integrate connectivity to live Anaplan data in Ruby. This article shows how to create a simple Ruby app that connects to Anaplan data, executes a query, and displays the results.

Create an ODBC Connection to Anaplan Data

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.

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.

Installing Ruby and Necessary Gems

If you do not have Ruby installed, refer to the Ruby installation page. With Ruby installed, you will need to install the ruby-dbi, dbd-odbc, and ruby-odbc gems:

gem install dbi
gem install dbd-odbc
gem install ruby-odbc

Create a Ruby App with Connectivity to Anaplan Data

Create a new Ruby file (for example: AnaplanSelect.rb) and open it in a text editor. Copy the following code into your file:

#connect to the DSN
require 'dbi'
cnxn = DBI.connect('DBI:ODBC:CData Anaplan Source','','')

#execute a SELECT query and store the result set
resultSet = cnxn.execute("SELECT Region, Product FROM [Workspace].[Model].[Sales] WHERE Value = '100'")

#display the names of the columns
resultSet.column_names.each do |name|
  print name, "\t"
end
puts

#display the results
while row = resultSet.fetch do
  (0..resultSet.column_names.size - 1).each do |n|
    print row[n], "\t"
  end
  puts
end
resultSet.finish

#close the connection
cnxn.disconnect if cnxn

With the file completed, you are ready to display your Anaplan data with Ruby. To do so, simply run your file from the command line:

ruby AnaplanSelect.rb
Writing SQL-92 queries to Anaplan allows you to quickly and easily incorporate Anaplan data into your own Ruby applications. Download a free trial today!

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Anaplan Icon Anaplan ODBC Driver

The Anaplan ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from Anaplan, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Anaplan data like you would a database - read, write, and update Anaplan 0, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.