Canny Reporting and Star Schemas in OBIEE
The CData ODBC Driver for Canny is a standard database driver that can integrate real-time access to Canny data into your data warehouse or directly into your reporting tool. This article shows how to bypass the data warehouse and import operational Canny 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 Canny Data as a Remote Oracle Database.
Connect to Canny 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 Canny Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\Canny.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Canny (see below).
Canny API Profile Settings
Canny uses a secret API key to control access to the API. The API key is sent as a JSON body parameter named 'apiKey' in every HTTP POST request to the Canny API endpoints.
To authenticate with the Canny API, you need your company-level secret API key. You can find this key in your Canny account under Settings > API.
After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:
- AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
- APIKey: Set this to your Canny company-level secret API key from the Settings > API page in your Canny dashboard.
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 Canny Metadata
Follow the steps below to use the OBIEE Client Tools to import Canny metadata into an OBIEE repository. You can then integrate Canny 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 Canny tables.
