Use ChatGPT to Talk to Your SAS xpt Data via CData Connect AI

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Leverage the CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server to enable ChatGPT to securely answer questions and take actions on your SAS xpt data for you.

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot developed by OpenAI, launched in November 2022. Based on large language models (LLMs), it enables users to refine and steer conversations through natural language processing. ChatGPT's developer mode, available to Plus and Pro subscribers, provides full Model Context Protocol (MCP) support for connecting to external data sources and tools.

CData Connect AI offers a dedicated cloud-to-cloud interface for connecting to SAS xpt data. The CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server enables secure communication between ChatGPT and SAS xpt. This allows you to ask questions and take actions on your SAS xpt data using ChatGPT, all without the need for data replication to a natively supported database. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect AI efficiently channels all supported SQL operations, including filters and JOINs, directly to SAS xpt. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly deliver the requested SAS xpt data.

Step 1: Configure SAS xpt Connectivity for ChatGPT

Connectivity to SAS xpt from ChatGPT is made possible through CData Connect AI Remote MCP. To interact with SAS xpt data from ChatGPT, we start by creating and configuring a SAS xpt connection in CData Connect AI.

  1. Log into your Connect AI account, click Sources, and then click Add Connection.
  2. Select "SAS xpt" from the Add Connection panel.
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SAS xpt.

    Connecting to Local SASXpt Files

    You can connect to local SASXpt file by setting the URI to a folder containing SASXpt files.

    Connecting to S3 data source

    You can connect to Amazon S3 source to read SASXpt files. Set the following properties to connect:

    • URI: Set this to the folder within your bucket that you would like to connect to.
    • AWSAccessKey: Set this to your AWS account access key.
    • AWSSecretKey: Set this to your AWS account secret key.
    • TemporaryLocalFolder: Set this to the path, or URI, to the folder that is used to temporarily download SASXpt file(s).

    Connecting to Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2

    You can connect to ADLS Gen2 to read SASXpt files. Set the following properties to connect:

    • URI: Set this to the name of the file system and the name of the folder which contacts your SASXpt files.
    • AzureAccount: Set this to the name of the Azure Data Lake storage account.
    • AzureAccessKey: Set this to our Azure DataLakeStore Gen 2 storage account access key.
    • TemporaryLocalFolder: Set this to the path, or URI, to the folder that is used to temporarily download SASXpt file(s).

  4. Click Save & Test

With the connection configured, we are ready to connect to SAS xpt data from ChatGPT.

Step 2: Connect ChatGPT to CData Connect AI

Follow these steps to add a CData Connect AI connection in ChatGPT:

  1. Sign in to ChatGPT with a Plus or Pro subscription.
  2. Navigate to Apps from the left panel.
  3. Select the CData Connect AI app from the list.
  4. .
  5. Click Connect to authenticate to your Connect AI account.
  6. Click Sign in with CData Connect AI to add Connect AI to your ChatGPT account.
  7. After successful authorization, you will be redirected back to ChatGPT.
  8. Click Start Chat to start a new conversation in ChatGPT with Connect AI connected at the background.

Step 3: Explore Live SAS xpt Data with ChatGPT

  1. Start a new conversation in ChatGPT.
  2. Connect AI should ideally be automatically enabled in the chat. If not, navigate to -> More -> CData Connect AI, under the chatbox, to enable the connector from the dropdown
  3. You can now start exploring your data with natural language prompts. ChatGPT will use the Connect AI MCP server to query your live SAS xpt data. Example prompts:
    • "Show me all customers from the last 30 days"
    • "What are my top performing products?"
    • "Analyze sales trends for this quarter"
    • "List all active projects and their current status"
    Refer to CData prompt library for more prompt ideas.
  4. Permit ChatGPT to access your SAS xpt data. Click Query Data to continue, or Deny to refuse.
  5. ChatGPT translates your natural language queries into SQL and execute them against your SAS xpt data through the Connect AI MCP server.

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