NASA Reporting and Star Schemas in OBIEE
The CData ODBC Driver for NASA is a standard database driver that can integrate real-time access to NASA data into your data warehouse or directly into your reporting tool. This article shows how to bypass the data warehouse and import operational NASA 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 NASA Data as a Remote Oracle Database.
Connect to NASA 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.
Using API Key Authentication
Most NASA API endpoints (APOD, NeoWS, DONKI, TechTransfer) require a NASA API key. Register for a free key at https://api.nasa.gov. The default DEMO_KEY provides limited access (30 requests/hour, 50 requests/day); a registered key allows 1,000 requests/hour.
The following endpoints do not require an API key and work without authentication: EONET (Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker), EPIC (Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera), NASA Image and Video Library, and TechPort.
After obtaining your API key, set the following connection properties:
- AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
- APIKey: Set this to your NASA API key. Use DEMO_KEY for limited testing.
Example Connection String
Profile=C:\profiles\NASA.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;APIKey=YOUR_NASA_API_KEY
Connecting to NASA
Once the authentication is configured, you can connect to NASA and query data from any of the available tables such as AstronomyPictureOfDay, NearEarthObjectFeed, EonetEvents, and NasaImageLibrary.
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 NASA Metadata
Follow the steps below to use the OBIEE Client Tools to import NASA metadata into an OBIEE repository. You can then integrate NASA 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 NASA tables.
