Connect to SQL Analysis Services Data in RunMyProcess through Connect AI

Akorbi Digital RunMyProcess makes it easy to create applications for complex business applications, such as budget application and contract management. CData Connect AI creates a live connection to SQL Analysis Services and can be used to generate an OData API (natively supported in RunMyProcess) for SQL Analysis Services. By pairing RunMyProcess with CData Connect AI, you get true cloud-to-cloud connectivity to all your SaaS and cloud-based Big Data and NoSQL sources - no need to migrate your data or write your own integrations. Simply connect to Connect AI from RunMyProcess as you would any other REST service and get instant, live access to your SQL Analysis Services data.

In this article, we walk through connecting to SQL Analysis Services from CData Connect AI and accessing SQL Analysis Services data through an OData feed in RunMyProcess.

Connect to SQL Analysis Services from RunMyProcess

To work with live SQL Analysis Services data in RunMyProcess, we need to connect to SQL Analysis Services from Connect AI, provide user access to the connection, and create a Workspace for the SQL Analysis Services data.

Connect to SQL Analysis Services from Connect AI

CData Connect AI uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

2. Select "SQL Analysis Services" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SQL Analysis Services.

   To connect, provide authentication and set the Url property to a valid SQL Server Analysis Services endpoint. You can connect to SQL Server Analysis Services instances hosted over HTTP with XMLA access. See the Microsoft documentation to configure HTTP access to SQL Server Analysis Services.

   To secure connections and authenticate, set the corresponding connection properties, below. The data provider supports the major authentication schemes, including HTTP and Windows, as well as SSL/TLS.

   • HTTP Authentication

     Set AuthScheme to "Basic" or "Digest" and set User and Password. Specify other authentication values in CustomHeaders.

   • Windows (NTLM)

     Set the Windows User and Password and set AuthScheme to "NTLM".

   • Kerberos and Kerberos Delegation

     To authenticate with Kerberos, set AuthScheme to NEGOTIATE. To use Kerberos delegation, set AuthScheme to KERBEROSDELEGATION. If needed, provide the User, Password, and KerberosSPN. By default, the data provider attempts to communicate with the SPN at the specified Url.

   • SSL/TLS:

     By default, the data provider attempts to negotiate SSL/TLS by checking the server's certificate against the system's trusted certificate store. To specify another certificate, see the SSLServerCert property for the available formats.

   You can then access any cube as a relational table: When you connect the data provider retrieves SSAS metadata and dynamically updates the table schemas. Instead of retrieving metadata every connection, you can set the CacheLocation property to automatically cache to a simple file-based store.

   See the Getting Started section of the CData documentation, under Retrieving Analysis Services Data, to execute SQL-92 queries to the cubes.

   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SQL Analysis Services Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

Configure SQL Analysis Services Endpoints for RunMyProcess

After connecting to SQL Analysis Services, create a workspace for your desired table(s).

1. Navigate to the Workspaces page and click Add to create a new Workspace (or select an existing workspace).
2. Click Add to add new assets to the Workspace.
3. Select the SQL Analysis Services connection (e.g. SSAS1) and click Next.
4. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm.
5. Make note of the OData Service URL for your workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}

With the connection, PAT, and Workspace configured, you are ready to connect to SQL Analysis Services data from RunMyProcess.

Retrieve SQL Analysis Services Data from RunMyProcess DigitalSuite Studio

With the connection to SQL Analysis Services and OData endpoints created, we are ready to add SQL Analysis Services data to RunMyProcess for Retrieval.

Create a Provider

1. Log into RunMyProcess and open DigitalSuite Studio.
2. Click Resources to bring up the Resources page, then select then the CONNECTORS tab.
3. Click the + (New Provider) button to create a new provider, choose the account to use, then click Confirm.
4. In the provider settings page, configure the following properties.
   • URL: Set the OData endpoint in the Connect AI OData page: https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}.
   • Authentication Schema: Select Login/Password.
   • Login: Specify a CData Connect AI username (e.g. [email protected]).
   • Password: Specify the PAT of the Connect AI user.
   
5. Fill in the same properties in the ACCEPTANCE and TEST tabs. Note: You can copy the configured settings by clicking 'Copy this configuration button,' then pasting the content in the new tab by clicking 'Paste previously copied configuration.'
6. Click Save to save the properties.

Retrieve SQL Analysis Services Data by Creating a Connector

1. In the CONNECTORS tab, click the button with three dots to create the provider, then select Add connector from the menu.
2. In the following page, set Connector URL to the OData endpoint configured in Connect AI (e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name})
3. Click Save then Launch to test the connector execution. Click Launch test to execute. The process is successful if you get the JSON response of your configured table information.

More Information & Free Trial

Now, you have created a provider and connector to retrieve SQL Analysis Services data. For more information on creating OData feeds from SQL Analysis Services (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect AI page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live SQL Analysis Services data in RunMyProcess.