ApprovalMax Reporting and Star Schemas in OBIEE
The CData ODBC Driver for ApprovalMax is a standard database driver that can integrate real-time access to ApprovalMax data into your data warehouse or directly into your reporting tool. This article shows how to bypass the data warehouse and import operational ApprovalMax data into Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE).
See the knowledge base for ODBC integrations with ETL tools like Informatica PowerCenter. For an ETL solution into Oracle Warehouse Builder, use the driver with the Oracle ODBC Gateway to Access ApprovalMax Data as a Remote Oracle Database.
Connect to ApprovalMax as an ODBC Data Source
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.
Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the ApprovalMax Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\ApprovalMax.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for ApprovalMax (see below).
ApprovalMax API Profile Settings
To authenticate to ApprovalMax and connect to your own data or to allow other users to connect to their data, the ApprovalMax Public API requires the OAuth 2.0 authorization code flow.
First, you will need to register an OAuth application with ApprovalMax. Sign in to the ApprovalMax Developer Portal (https://developer.approvalmax.com/applications) and create a new application. Your OAuth application will be assigned a Client ID and a Client Secret, and you must register at least one Redirect URI (Callback URL).
A Premium ApprovalMax subscription (or active trial) is required to use the Public API.
After setting the following connection properties, 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 shown in your application settings on the ApprovalMax Developer Portal.
- OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the Client Secret that is shown in your application settings on the ApprovalMax Developer Portal.
- CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI that is registered in your application settings.
- Scope: (Optional) Override the default OAuth scopes. The default value openid offline_access https://www.approvalmax.com/scopes/public_api/read grants read-only access to all tables in this profile and enables refresh tokens. Use the principle of least privilege when narrowing this scope.
The OAuth Authorization URL is https://identity.approvalmax.com/connect/authorize and the Token URL is https://identity.approvalmax.com/connect/token. Both authorization_code and refresh_token grant types are supported.
When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.
Import ApprovalMax Metadata
Follow the steps below to use the OBIEE Client Tools to import ApprovalMax metadata into an OBIEE repository. You can then integrate ApprovalMax data into your business models.
Open the Administration Tool and click File -> New Repository.
- In the Connection Type menu, select ODBC 3.5 and select the CData DSN.
- Select the metadata types you want to import under the Relational Sources option and then select ApprovalMax tables.
