Postmark Reporting and Star Schemas in OBIEE
The CData ODBC Driver for Postmark is a standard database driver that can integrate real-time access to Postmark data into your data warehouse or directly into your reporting tool. This article shows how to bypass the data warehouse and import operational Postmark 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 Postmark Data as a Remote Oracle Database.
Connect to Postmark 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
Postmark uses server API tokens to authenticate requests. Each Postmark server has its own API token, which controls access to messages, bounces, templates, and statistics associated with that server.
To obtain your Server API Token, log in to your Postmark account and navigate to the server you want to connect to. Go to API Tokens under the server settings and copy the token labeled Server API token.
After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:
- AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
- APIKey: Set this to your Postmark Server API Token. This value is sent as the X-Postmark-Server-Token header on every request.
Example connection string:
Profile=C:\profiles\Postmark.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings="APIKey=your-server-api-token"
Connecting to Postmark
Once the authentication is configured, you can connect to Postmark and query data from any of the available tables such as OutboundMessages, Bounces, and Templates.
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 Postmark Metadata
Follow the steps below to use the OBIEE Client Tools to import Postmark metadata into an OBIEE repository. You can then integrate Postmark 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 Postmark tables.
