How to connect PolyBase to Monday.com

PolyBase for SQL Server allows you to query external data by using the same Transact-SQL syntax used to query a database table. When paired with the CData ODBC Driver for Monday.com, you get access to your Monday.com data directly alongside your SQL Server data. This article describes creating an external data source and external tables to grant access to live Monday.com data using T-SQL queries.

NOTE: PolyBase is only available on SQL Server 19 and above, and only for Standard SQL Server.

The CData ODBC drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live Monday.com data using PolyBase due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SQL Server to Monday.com, the driver pushes down supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Monday.com and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. And with PolyBase, you can also join SQL Server data with Monday.com data, using a single query to pull data from distributed sources.

Connect to Monday.com

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. To create an external data source in SQL Server using PolyBase, configure a System DSN (CData Monday.com Sys is created automatically).

You can connect to Monday.com using either API Token authentication or OAuth authentication.

Connecting with an API Token

Connect to Monday.com by specifying the APIToken. Set the AuthScheme to Token and obtain the APIToken as follows:

• API tokens for admin users
  1. Log in to your Monday.com account and click on your avatar in the bottom left corner.
  2. Select Admin.
  3. Select "API" on the left side of the Admin page.
  4. Click the "Copy" button to copy the user's API token.
• API tokens for non-admin users
  1. Click on your profile picture in the bottom left of your screen.
  2. Select "Developers"
  3. Click "Developer" and then "My Access Tokens" at the top.
  4. Select "Show" next to the API token, where you'll be able to copy it.

Connecting with OAuth Authentication

Alternatively, you can establish a connection using OAuth (refer to the OAuth section of the Help documentation).

Click "Test Connection" to ensure that the DSN is connected to Monday.com properly. Navigate to the Tables tab to review the table definitions for Monday.com.

Create an External Data Source for Monday.com Data

After configuring the connection, you need to create a master encryption key and a credential database for the external data source.

Creating a Master Encryption Key

Execute the following SQL command to create a new master key, 'ENCRYPTION,' to encrypt the credentials for the external data source.

CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'password';

Creating a Credential Database

Execute the following SQL command to create credentials for the external data source connected to Monday.com data.

NOTE: Since Monday.com does not require a User or Password to authenticate, you may use whatever values you wish for IDENTITY and SECRET.

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL monday_creds
WITH IDENTITY = 'username', SECRET = 'password';

Create an External Data Source for Monday.com

Execute a CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE SQL command to create an external data source for Monday.com with PolyBase:

• Set the LOCATION parameter , using the DSN and credentials configured earlier.

For Monday.com, set SERVERNAME to the URL or address for your server (e.g. 'localhost' or '127.0.0.1' for local servers; the remote URL for remote servers). Leave PORT empty. PUSHDOWN is set to ON by default, meaning the ODBC Driver can leverage server-side processing for complex queries.

CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE cdata_monday_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData Monday.com Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = monday_creds
);

Create External Tables for Monday.com

After creating the external data source, use CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statements to link to Monday.com data from your SQL Server instance. The table column definitions must match those exposed by the CData ODBC Driver for Monday.com. You can refer to the Tables tab of the DSN Configuration Wizard to see the table definition.

Sample CREATE TABLE Statement

The statement to create an external table based on a Monday.com Invoices would look similar to the following:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE Invoices(
  Id [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  DueDate [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='Invoices',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_monday_source
);

Having created external tables for Monday.com in your SQL Server instance, you are now able to query local and remote data simultaneously. Thanks to built-in query processing in the CData ODBC Driver, you know that as much query processing as possible is being pushed to Monday.com, freeing up local resources and computing power. Download a free, 30-day trial of the ODBC Driver for Monday.com and start working with live Monday.com data alongside your SQL Server data today.