Access Gong Data as a Remote Oracle Database

The Oracle Database Gateway for ODBC and Heterogeneous Services technology enable you to connect to ODBC data sources as remote Oracle databases. This article shows how to use the CData ODBC Driver for Gong to create a database link from Gong to Oracle and to query Gong data through the SQL*Plus tool. You can also create the database link and execute queries from SQL Developer.

Connect to Gong as an ODBC Data Source

Information for connecting to Gong follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments.

To authenticate to Gong, you can use API Key authentication with your Gong API Key and API Secret.

Authentication

To authenticate to Gong, you must provide your Gong API Key and API Secret, along with your tenant Domain. These credentials are combined and Base64-encoded to form the Basic authentication header used for all API requests.

Using API Key Authentication

To authenticate using an API Key, you need to obtain your API Key and API Secret from your Gong account settings.

You can then connect by setting the AuthScheme to APIKey and providing your credentials:

• AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
• APIKey: Set this to your Gong API Key.
• APISecret: Set this to your Gong API Secret.
• Domain: Set this to your Gong tenant domain (e.g., us-36533.api.gong.io).

Example connection string

Profile=C:\profiles\Gong.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key;APISecret=your_api_secret;Domain=your-tenant.api.gong.io';

Windows

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.

Note: If you need to modify the DSN or create other Gong DSNs, you must use a system DSN and the bitness of the DSN must match your Oracle system. You can access and create 32-bit DSNs on a 64-bit system by opening the 32-bit ODBC Data Source Administrator from C:\Windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe.

Linux

If you are installing the CData ODBC Driver for Gong in a Linux environment, the driver installation predefines a system DSN. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties.

/etc/odbc.ini

[CData API Source]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Gong
Description = My Description
Profile = C:\profiles\Gong.apip
AuthScheme = APIKey
ProfileSettings = 'APIKey = your_api_key
APISecret = your_api_secret
Domain = your-tenant.api.gong.io'

For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).

Set Connection Properties for Compatibility with Oracle

The driver provides several connection properties that streamline accessing Gong data just as you would an Oracle database. Set the following properties when working with Gong data in SQL*Plus and SQL Developer. For compatibility with Oracle, you will need to set the following connection properties, in addition to authentication and other required connection properties.

• MapToWVarchar=False

  Set this property to map string data types to SQL_VARCHAR instead of SQL_WVARCHAR. By default, the driver uses SQL_WVARCHAR to accommodate various international character sets. You can use this property to avoid the ORA-28528 Heterogeneous Services data type conversion error when the Unicode type is returned.

• MaximumColumnSize=4000

  Set this property to restrict the maximum column size to 4000 characters.

• IncludeDualTable=True

  Set this property to mock the Oracle DUAL table. SQL Developer uses this table to test the connection.

Linux Configuration

In Linux environments, Oracle uses UTF-8 to communicate with the unixODBC Driver manager, whereas the default driver encoding is UTF-16. To resolve this, open the file /opt/cdata/cdata-driver-for-api/lib/cdata.odbc.api.ini in a text editor and set the encoding.

cdata.odbc.api.ini

[Driver]
DriverManagerEncoding = UTF-8

Configure the ODBC Gateway, Oracle Net, and Oracle Database

Follow the procedure below to set up an ODBC gateway to Gong data that enables you to query live Gong data as an Oracle database.

1. Create the file initmygongdb.ora in the folder oracle-home-directory/hs/admin and add the following setting:

   initmygongdb.ora

   HS_FDS_CONNECT_INFO = "CData API Sys"

2. Add an entry to the listener.ora file. This file is located in oracle-home-directory/NETWORK/admin.

   If you are using the Database Gateway for ODBC, your listener.ora needs to have a SID_LIST_LISTENER entry that resembles the following:

   listener.ora

   SID_LIST_LISTENER =
     (SID_LIST =
       (SID_DESC =
         (SID_NAME = mygongdb)
         (ORACLE_HOME = your-oracle-home)
         (PROGRAM = dg4odbc)
       )
     )
   

   If you are using Heterogeneous Services, your listener.ora needs to have a SID_LIST_LISTENER entry that resembles the following:

   listener.ora

   SID_LIST_LISTENER =
     (SID_LIST =
       (SID_DESC =
         (SID_NAME = mygongdb)
         (ORACLE_HOME = your-oracle-home)
         (PROGRAM = hsodbc)
       )
     )
   

3. Add the connect descriptor below in tnsnames.ora, located in oracle-home-directory/NETWORK/admin:

   tnsnames.ora

   mygongdb  =
     (DESCRIPTION=
       (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=localhost)(PORT=1521))
       (CONNECT_DATA=(SID=mygongdb))
       (HS=OK)
     ) 
   

4. Restart the listener.

5. Test the configuration with the following command:

   tnsping mygongdb

6. Open SQL*Plus and create the database link with the command below:

   CREATE DATABASE LINK mygongdb CONNECT TO "user" IDENTIFIED BY "password" USING 'mygongdb';

You can now execute queries in SQL*Plus like the one below (note the double quotation marks around the table name):

SELECT * from "AnsweredScorecards"@mygongdb WHERE  = '';