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Connect to Salesforce data in MicroStrategy Developer using the CData ODBC Driver for Salesforce.
MicroStrategy is an analytics and mobility platform that enables data-driven innovation. When you pair MicroStrategy with the CData ODBC Driver for Salesforce, you gain database-like access to live Salesforce data from MicroStrategy, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. In this article, we walk through creating a database instance for Salesforce in MicroStrategy Developer and creating a Warehouse Catalog based on Salesforce data.
The CData ODBC driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Salesforce data in MicroStrategy due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from MicroStrategy to Salesforce, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Salesforce 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 Salesforce data using native MicroStrategy data types.
About Salesforce Data Integration
Accessing and integrating live data from Salesforce has never been easier with CData. Customers rely on CData connectivity to:
- Access to custom entities and fields means Salesforce users get access to all of Salesforce.
- Create atomic and batch update operations.
- Read, write, update, and delete their Salesforce data.
- Leverage the latest Salesforce features and functionalities with support for SOAP API versions 30.0.
- See improved performance based on SOQL support to push complex queries down to Salesforce servers.
- Use SQL stored procedures to perform actions like creating, retrieving, aborting, and deleting jobs, uploading and downloading attachments and documents, and more.
Users frequently integrate Salesforce data with:
- other ERPs, marketing automation, HCMs, and more.
- preferred data tools like Power BI, Tableau, Looker, and more.
- databases and data warehouses.
For more information on how CData solutions work with Salesforce, check out our Salesforce integration page.
Getting Started
Connect to Salesforce as an ODBC Data Source
Information for connecting to Salesforce follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments (the ODBC Driver for Salesforce must be installed on the machine hosting the connected MicroStrategy Intelligence Server).
There are several authentication methods available for connecting to Salesforce: Login, OAuth, and SSO. The Login method requires you to have the username, password, and security token of the user.
If you do not have access to the username and password or do not wish to require them, you can use OAuth authentication.
SSO (single sign-on) can be used by setting the SSOProperties, SSOLoginUrl, and TokenUrl connection properties, which allow you to authenticate to an identity provider. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for more information.
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.
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.
Linux
If you are installing the CData ODBC Driver for Salesforce 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 Salesforce Sys]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Salesforce
Description = My Description
User = username
Password = password
SecurityToken = Your_Security_Token
For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).
Create a Salesforce Database Instance in MicroStrategy Developer
You can connect to Salesforce in MicroStrategy Developer by adding a database instance based on the CData ODBC Driver for Salesforce.*
- Open MicroStrategy Developer and select a Project Source.
- Navigate to Administration -> Configuration Managers -> Database Instances and right-click to add a new instance.
- Name the instance, select Generic DBMS as the database connection type, and create a new database connection.
- In the database connection wizard, name the connection and create a new Database Login name, using filler values for the user and password.
- Select the DSN that you configured earlier as the ODBC data source (i.e., CData Salesforce Sys).
- Select the newly created database connection.
- In the Project Source, right-click the project and open the Project configuration.
- Navigate to Database Instances and select the newly created database instance.
- Close MicroStrategy Developer and restart the connected MicroStrategy Intelligence Server to complete the database instance creation.
With the database instance configured, you will now be able to connect to Salesforce data from the Warehouse Catalog and Data Import.
Connect to Salesforce Data from the Warehouse Catalog
Once you have created a database instance based on the ODBC Driver for Salesforce, you can connect to data from the Warehouse Catalog.
- Select your project and click Schema -> Warehouse Catalog.
- In the Read Settings for the Catalog, click Settings and set the queries to retrieve the schema:
- To retrieve the list of tables, use the following query:
SELECT CatalogName NAME_SPACE, TableName TAB_NAME FROM SYS_TABLES
- To retrieve the list of columns for selected tables, use the following query:
SELECT DISTINCT CatalogName NAME_SPACE, TableName TAB_NAME, ColumnName COL_NAME, DataTypeName DATA_TYPE, Length DATA_LEN, NumericPrecision DATA_PREC, NumericScale DATA_SCALE FROM SYS_TABLECOLUMNS WHERE TableName IN (#TABLE_LIST#) ORDER BY 1,2,3
- To retrieve the list of tables, use the following query:
- Select tables to be used in the project.
If you are interested in connecting to Salesforce from other MicroStrategy products, you can read about connecting from MicroStrategy Web and connecting from MicroStrategy Desktop.
Note: connecting using a ODBC driver requires a 3- or 4-tier architecture.