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Get the Report →How to connect to SQL Analysis Services Data from Google Apps Script
Use CData Connect Server to access SQL Analysis Services data in Google Apps Script.
Google Apps Script gives you the ability to create custom functionality within your Google documents, including Google Sheets, Google Docs, and more. With CData Connect Server, you get a SQL Server interface for any of the 200+ sources supported by CData, including SQL Analysis Services. The SQL Server protocol is natively supported through the JDBC service in Google Apps Script, so by utilizing Connect Server, you gain access to live SQL Analysis Services data within your Google documents.
This article shows how to create a virtual database for SQL Analysis Services in Connect Server and provides sample scripting for processing SQL Analysis Services data in a Google Spreadsheet.
CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for SQL Analysis Services, allowing you to easily build reports from live SQL Analysis Services data in Apps Script — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. As you build visualizations, Apps Script generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Server pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to SQL Analysis Services, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested SQL Analysis Services data.
Create a Virtual SQL Server Database for SQL Analysis Services Data
CData Connect Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.
- Login to Connect Server and click Connections.
- Select "SQL Analysis Services" from Available Data Sources.
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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.
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HTTP Authentication
Set AuthScheme to "Basic" or "Digest" and set User and Password. Specify other authentication values in CustomHeaders.
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Windows (NTLM)
Set the Windows User and Password and set AuthScheme to "NTLM".
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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.
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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.
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HTTP Authentication
- Click Save Changes
- Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions.
With the virtual database created, you are ready to connect to SQL Analysis Services data from Apps Script.
Connect to SQL Analysis Services Data with Apps Script
At this point, you should have configured a virtual database for SQL Analysis Services in Connect Server. All that is left now is to use Google Apps Script to access Connect Server and work with your SQL Analysis Services data in Google Sheets.
In this section, you will create a script (with a menu option to call the script) to populate a spreadsheet with SQL Analysis Services data. We have created a sample script and explained the different parts. You can view the raw script at the end of the article.
1. Create an Empty Script
To create a script for your Google Sheet, click Tools Script editor from the Google Sheets menu:
2. Declare Class Variables
Create a handful of class variables to be available for any functions created in the script.
//replace the variables in this block with real values as needed var address = 'CONNECT_SERVER_URL:port'; var user = 'CONNECT_USER'; var userPwd = 'CONNECT_PASSWORD'; var db = 'ssasdb'; var serverSslCert = '-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- ... -----END CERTIFICATE-----'; var clientSslCert = '-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- ... -----END CERTIFICATE-----'; var clientSslKey = '-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- ... -----END CERTIFICATE-----'; var dbUrl = 'jdbc:sqlserver://' + address + '/' + db + '?useSSL=true';
3. Add a Menu Option
This function adds a menu option to your Google Sheet, allowing you to use the UI to call your function.
function onOpen() { var spreadsheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActive(); var menuItems = [ {name: 'Write data to a sheet', functionName: 'connectToSSASData'} ]; spreadsheet.addMenu('SQL Analysis Services Data', menuItems); }
4. Write a Helper Function
This function is used to find the first empty row in a spreadsheet.
/* * Finds the first empty row in a spreadsheet by scanning an array of columns * @return The row number of the first empty row. */ function getFirstEmptyRowByColumnArray(spreadSheet, column) { var column = spreadSheet.getRange(column + ":" + column); var values = column.getValues(); // get all data in one call var ct = 0; while ( values[ct] && values[ct][0] != "" ) { ct++; } return (ct+1); }
5. Write a Function to Write SQL Analysis Services Data to a Spreadsheet
The function below writes the SQL Analysis Services data, using the Google Apps Script JDBC functionality to connect to Connect Server, SELECT data, and populate a spreadsheet. When the script is run, two input boxes will appear:
The first one asks the user to input the name of a sheet to hold the data (if the spreadsheet does not exist, the function creates it).
The second asks the user to input the name of a SQL Analysis Services table to read. If an invalid table is chosen, an error message appears and the function is exited.
Note, while the function is designed for use as a menu option, you can extend it for use as a spreadsheet formula.
/* * Reads data from a specified SQL Analysis Services 'table' and writes it to the specified sheet. * (If the specified sheet does not exist, it is created.) */ function connectToSSASData() { var thisWorkbook = SpreadsheetApp.getActive(); //select a sheet and create it if it does not exist var selectedSheet = Browser.inputBox('Which sheet would you like the data to post to?',Browser.Buttons.OK_CANCEL); if (selectedSheet == 'cancel') return; if (thisWorkbook.getSheetByName(selectedSheet) == null) thisWorkbook.insertSheet(selectedSheet); var resultSheet = thisWorkbook.getSheetByName(selectedSheet); var rowNum = 2; //select a SQL Analysis Services 'table' var table = Browser.inputBox('Which table would you like to pull data from?',Browser.Buttons.OK_CANCEL); if (table == 'cancel') return; var conn = Jdbc.getConnection(dbUrl, { user: user, password: userPwd, _serverSslCertificate: serverSslCert, _clientSslCertificate: clientSslCert, _clientSslKey: clientSslKey ); //confirm that var table is a valid table/view var dbMetaData = conn.getMetaData(); var tableSet = dbMetaData.getTables(null, null, table, null); var validTable = false; while (tableSet.next()) { var tempTable = tableSet.getString(3); if (table.toUpperCase() == tempTable.toUpperCase()){ table = tempTable; validTable = true; break; } } tableSet.close(); if (!validTable) { Browser.msgBox("Invalid table name: " + table, Browser.Buttons.OK); return; } var stmt = conn.createStatement(); var results = stmt.executeQuery('SELECT * FROM ' + table); var rsmd = results.getMetaData(); var numCols = rsmd.getColumnCount(); //if the sheet is empty, populate the first row with the headers var firstEmptyRow = getFirstEmptyRowByColumnArray(resultSheet, "A"); if (firstEmptyRow == 1) { //collect column names var headers = new Array(new Array(numCols)); for (var col = 0; col < numCols; col++){ headers[0][col] = rsmd.getColumnName(col+1); } resultSheet.getRange(1, 1, headers.length, headers[0].length).setValues(headers); } else { rowNum = firstEmptyRow; } //write rows of SQL Analysis Services data to the sheet var values = new Array(new Array(numCols)); while (results.next()) { for (var col = 0; col < numCols; col++) { values[0][col] = results.getString(col + 1); } resultSheet.getRange(rowNum, 1, 1, numCols).setValues(values); rowNum++; } results.close(); stmt.close(); }
When the function is completed, you have a spreadsheet populated with your SQL Analysis Services data, and you can now leverage all of the calculating, graphing, and charting functionality of Google Sheets anywhere you have access to the Internet.
Complete Google Apps Script
//replace the variables in this block with real values as needed var address = 'CONNECT_SERVER_URL:port'; var user = 'CONNECT_USER'; var userPwd = 'CONNECT_PASSWORD'; var db = 'ssasdb'; var serverSslCert = '-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- ... -----END CERTIFICATE-----'; var clientSslCert = '-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- ... -----END CERTIFICATE-----'; var clientSslKey = '-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- ... -----END CERTIFICATE-----'; var dbUrl = 'jdbc:sqlserver://' + address + '/' + db + '?useSSL=true'; function onOpen() { var spreadsheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActive(); var menuItems = [ {name: 'Write table data to a sheet', functionName: 'connectToSSASData'} ]; spreadsheet.addMenu('SQL Analysis Services Data', menuItems); } /* * Finds the first empty row in a spreadsheet by scanning an array of columns * @return The row number of the first empty row. */ function getFirstEmptyRowByColumnArray(spreadSheet, column) { var column = spreadSheet.getRange(column + ":" + column); var values = column.getValues(); // get all data in one call var ct = 0; while ( values[ct] && values[ct][0] != "" ) { ct++; } return (ct+1); } /* * Reads data from a specified 'table' and writes it to the specified sheet. * (If the specified sheet does not exist, it is created.) */ function connectToSSASData() { var thisWorkbook = SpreadsheetApp.getActive(); //select a sheet and create it if it does not exist var selectedSheet = Browser.inputBox('Which sheet would you like the data to post to?',Browser.Buttons.OK_CANCEL); if (selectedSheet == 'cancel') return; if (thisWorkbook.getSheetByName(selectedSheet) == null) thisWorkbook.insertSheet(selectedSheet); var resultSheet = thisWorkbook.getSheetByName(selectedSheet); var rowNum = 2; //select a SQL Analysis Services 'table' var table = Browser.inputBox('Which table would you like to pull data from?',Browser.Buttons.OK_CANCEL); if (table == 'cancel') return; var conn = Jdbc.getConnection(dbUrl, { user: user, password: userPwd, _serverSslCertificate: serverSslCert, _clientSslCertificate: clientSslCert, _clientSslKey: clientSslKey ); //confirm that var table is a valid table/view var dbMetaData = conn.getMetaData(); var tableSet = dbMetaData.getTables(null, null, table, null); var validTable = false; while (tableSet.next()) { var tempTable = tableSet.getString(3); if (table.toUpperCase() == tempTable.toUpperCase()){ table = tempTable; validTable = true; break; } } tableSet.close(); if (!validTable) { Browser.msgBox("Invalid table name: " + table, Browser.Buttons.OK); return; } var stmt = conn.createStatement(); var results = stmt.executeQuery('SELECT * FROM ' + table); var rsmd = results.getMetaData(); var numCols = rsmd.getColumnCount(); //if the sheet is empty, populate the first row with the headers var firstEmptyRow = getFirstEmptyRowByColumnArray(resultSheet, "A"); if (firstEmptyRow == 1) { //collect column names var headers = new Array(new Array(numCols)); for (var col = 0; col < numCols; col++){ headers[0][col] = rsmd.getColumnName(col+1); } resultSheet.getRange(1, 1, headers.length, headers[0].length).setValues(headers); } else { rowNum = firstEmptyRow; } //write rows of SQL Analysis Services data to the sheet var values = new Array(new Array(numCols)); while (results.next()) { for (var col = 0; col < numCols; col++) { values[0][col] = results.getString(col + 1); } resultSheet.getRange(rowNum, 1, 1, numCols).setValues(values); rowNum++; } results.close(); stmt.close(); }