Access Live Avalara AvaTax Data in Spring Boot

Ready to get started?

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

Learn more:

Rapidly create and deploy powerful Java applications that integrate with AvaTax.

Connect to Avalara AvaTax in a Spring Boot Application using CData JDBC Avalara AvaTax Driver

Spring Boot is a framework that makes engineering Java web applications easier. It offers the ability to create standalone applications with minimal configuration. When paired with the CData JDBC driver for Avalara AvaTax, Spring Boot can work with live Avalara AvaTax data. This article shows how to configure data sources and retrieve data in your Java Spring Boot Application, using the CData JDBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData JDBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Avalara AvaTax data. When you issue complex SQL queries to Avalara AvaTax, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Avalara AvaTax and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (often SQL functions and JOIN operations). Its built-in dynamic metadata querying allows you to work with and analyze Avalara AvaTax data using native data types.

Creating the Spring Boot Project in Java

In an IDE (in this tutorial, we use IntelliJ), choose a Maven project: In the generated project, go to the pom.xml file, and add the required dependencies for Spring Boot:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<parent>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
<version>2.7.2</version>
<relativePath/>
</parent>
<groupId>com.example</groupId>
<artifactId>demo</artifactId>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<name>demo</name>
<description>Demo project for Spring Boot</description>
<properties>
<java.version>1.8</java.version>
</properties>
<build>
<plugins>
	<plugin>
		<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
		<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
	</plugin>

	<plugin>
		<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
		<artifactId>maven-install-plugin</artifactId>
		<version>2.5.1</version>
		<executions>
			<execution>
				<id>id.install-file</id>
				<phase>clean</phase>
				<goals>
					<goal>install-file</goal>
				</goals>
				<configuration>
					<file>C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax ####\lib\cdata.jdbc.avalaraavatax.jar</file>
					<groupId>org.cdata.connectors</groupId>
					<artifactId>cdata-avalaraavatax-connector</artifactId>
					<version>21</version>
					<packaging>jar</packaging>
				</configuration>
			</execution>
		</executions>
	</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>

<dependencies>
<dependency>
	<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
	<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
	<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
	<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-jdbc</artifactId>
	<version>2.7.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
	<groupId>org.cdata.connectors</groupId>
	<artifactId>cdata-avalaraavatax-connector</artifactId>
	<version>21</version>
</dependency>

<dependency>
	<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
	<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
	<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>



<distributionManagement>
<repository>
	<uniqueVersion>false</uniqueVersion>
	<id>test</id>
	<name>My Repository</name>
	<url>scp://repo/maven2</url>
	<layout>default</layout>
</repository>
</distributionManagement>

</project>

Project Structure

In the java directory, create a new package. Usually the name of the package is the name of the groupId (com.example) followed by the artifactId (.MDS).

Make sure that the "java" directory is the sources root; this is indicated with a blue color. You may need to right click the java directory and select Mark Directory -> Sources Root. Also, the resources directory should be marked as Resources Root.

Database Connection Properties

In the application.properties file, we set the configuration properties for the Avalara AvaTax JDBC Driver, using the Class name and JDBC URL:


	spring.datasource.driver=cdata.jdbc.avalaraavatax.AvalaraAvataxDriver
	spring.datasource.url=jdbc:avalaraavatax:User=MyUser;Password=MyPassword;

Built-in Connection String Designer

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


java -jar cdata.jdbc.avalaraavatax.jar

The primary method for performing basic authentication is to provide your login credentials, as follows:

User: Set this to your username.
Password: Set this to your password.

Optionally, if you are making use of a sandbox environment, set the following:

UseSandbox: Set this to true if you are authenticating with a sandbox account.

Authenticating Using Account Number and License Key

Alternatively, you can authenticate using your account number and license key. Connect to data using the following:

AccountId: Set this to your Account Id. The Account Id is listed in the upper right hand corner of the admin console.
LicenseKey: Set this to your Avalara Avatax license key. You can generate a license key by logging into Avalara Avatax as an account administrator and navigating to Settings -> Reset License Key.

Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)

After setting the properties in the application.properties file, we now configure them.

Data Source Configuration

First, we mark the Avalara AvaTax data source as our primary data source. Then, we create a Data Source Bean.

Create a DriverManagerDataSource.java file and create a Bean within it, as shown below. If @Bean gives an error, Spring Boot may not have loaded properly. To fix this, go to File -> Invalidate Caches and restart. Additionally, make sure that Maven has added the Spring Boot dependencies.

To create a data source bean, we use DriverManagerDataSource Class. This class allows us to set the properties of the data source. The following code shows the bean definition of our data source. Each driver should have a bean.


import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.jdbc.DataSourceBuilder;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Primary;
import org.springframework.core.env.Environment;
import javax.sql.DataSource;

public class DriverManagerDataSource{
	@Autowired
	private static Environment env;

	@Bean(name ="AvalaraAvatax")
	@Primary
	public static DataSource AvalaraAvataxDataSource()
	{

	DataSourceBuilder<?> dataSourceBuilder = DataSourceBuilder.create();
		dataSourceBuilder.driverClassName("cdata.jdbc.avalaraavatax.AvalaraAvataxDriver");
		dataSourceBuilder.url("jdbc:avalaraavatax:User=MyUser;Password=MyPassword;");
		return dataSourceBuilder.build();
	}
	
	//@Override
	public void setEnvironment( final Environment environment) {
	env=environment;
	}
}

Next, move the Avalara AvaTax jar file to the Documents folder (see path in command below). Then, click the Maven icon (top right corner of IntelliJ) and click "Execute Maven Goal." Now, run the following command: mvn install:install-file -Dfile=C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax ####\lib\cdata.jdbc.avalaraavatax.jar -DgroupId=cdata.jdbc.avalaraavatax -DartifactId=cdata-avalaraavatax-connector -Dversion=21 -Dpackaging=jar

After pressing enter, we see the following output:

Testing the Connection

The last step is testing the connection. We call the data source in the main method of MDSApplication.java:


import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.jdbc.DataSourceAutoConfiguration;
import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import static com.example.demo.DriverManagerDataSources.AvalaraAvataxDataSource;


@SpringBootApplication(exclude = {DataSourceAutoConfiguration.class})
	public class MDSApplication {
		//remove the comment on the line below
		public static void main (){
		SpringApplication.run(DemoApplication.class, args);
		Connection conn = AvalaraAvataxDataSource().getConnection();
		System.out.println("Catalog: "+ conn.getCatalog());
	}
}

The output generated should look like this:

Free Trial & More Information

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax and start working with your live Avalara AvaTax in Spring Boot

CData Software is a leading provider of data access and connectivity solutions. Our standards-based connectors streamline data access and insulate customers from the complexities of integrating with on-premise or cloud databases, SaaS, APIs, NoSQL, and Big Data.

Connect With Us

Get Started

Data Connectors

ETL/ ELT Solutions

Cloud & API Connectivity

OEM & Custom Drivers