Connect to and Query Magento Data in QlikView over ODBC

The CData ODBC drivers expand your ability to work with data from more than 200 data sources. QlikView is a business discovery platform that provides self-service BI for all business users in an organization. This article outlines simple steps to connect to Magento data using the CData ODBC driver and create data visualizations in QlikView.

The CData ODBC drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live Magento data in QlikView due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from QlikView to Magento, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Magento and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. With built-in dynamic metadata querying, you can visualize and analyze Magento data using native QlikView data types.

Connect to Magento 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.

Magento uses the OAuth 1 authentication standard. To connect to the Magento REST API, you will need to obtain values for the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties by registering an app with your Magento system. See the "Getting Started" section in the help documentation for a guide to obtaining the OAuth values and connecting.

You will also need to provide the URL to your Magento system. The URL depends on whether you are using the Magento REST API as a customer or administrator.

• Customer: To use Magento as a customer, make sure you have created a customer account in the Magento homepage. To do so, click Account -> Register. You can then set the URL connection property to the endpoint of your Magento system.

• Administrator: To access Magento as an administrator, set CustomAdminPath instead. This value can be obtained in the Advanced settings in the Admin menu, which can be accessed by selecting System -> Configuration -> Advanced -> Admin -> Admin Base URL.

  If the Use Custom Admin Path setting on this page is set to YES, the value is inside the Custom Admin Path text box; otherwise, set the CustomAdminPath connection property to the default value, which is "admin".

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.

Populate a Chart with Magento Data

The steps below supply the results of an SQL query to a visualization in QlikView. In this article, you will create a bar chart with the query below:

1. Click File -> Edit Script (or click the Edit Script button in the Toolbar).
2. On the Data tab, select ODBC in the Database menu and click Connect.
3. Select the DSN (CData Magento Sys) in the resulting dialog. A command like the following is generated: ODBC CONNECT TO [CData Magento Sys];
4. Enter the SQL query directly into the script with the SQL command (or click Select to build the query in the SELECT statement wizard). SQL SELECT Name, Price FROM Products;

   Where possible, the SQL operations in the query, like filters and aggregations, will be pushed down to Magento, while any unsupported operations (which can include SQL functions and JOIN operations) will be managed client-side by the CData SQL engine embedded in the driver.

5. Close the script editor and reload the document to execute the script.
6. Click Tools -> Quick Chart Wizard. In the wizard, select the chart type. This example uses a bar chart. When building the chart, you have access to the fields from Magento, typed appropriately for QlikView, thanks to built-in dynamic metadata querying.
7. When defining Dimensions, select Name in the First Dimension menu.
8. When defining Expressions, click the summary function you want and select Price in the menu.

9. Finish the wizard to generate the chart. The CData ODBC Driver for Magento connects to live Magento data, so the chart can be refreshed to see real-time changes. Live connections are possible and effective, thanks to the high-performance data processing native to CData ODBC Drivers.