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Get the Report →A PostgreSQL Interface for TaxJar Data
Use the Remoting features of the TaxJar JDBC Driver to create a PostgreSQL entry-point for data access.
There are a vast number of PostgreSQL clients available on the Internet. From standard Drivers to BI and Analytics tools, PostgreSQL is a popular interface for data access. Using our JDBC Drivers, you can now create PostgreSQL entry-points that you can connect to from any standard client.
To access TaxJar data as a PostgreSQL database, use the CData JDBC Driver for TaxJar and a JDBC foreign data wrapper (FDW). In this article, we compile the FDW, install it, and query TaxJar data from PostgreSQL Server.
Connect to TaxJar Data as a JDBC Data Source
To connect to TaxJar as a JDBC data source, you will need the following:
- Driver JAR path: The JAR is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
Driver class:
cdata.jdbc.taxjar.TaxJarDriver
- JDBC URL:
The URL must start with "jdbc:taxjar:" and can include any of the connection properties in name-value pairs separated with semicolons.
To authenticate to the TaxJar API, you will need to first obtain the API Key from the TaxJar UI.
NOTE: the API is available only for Professional and Premium TaxJar plans.
If you already have a Professional or Premium plan you can find the API Key by logging in the TaxJar UI and navigating to Account -> TaxJar API. After obtaining the API Key, you can set it in the APIKey connection property.
Additional Notes
- By default, the CData connector will retrieve data of the last 3 months in cases where the entity support date range filtering. You can set StartDate to specify the minimum creation date of the data retrieved.
- If the API Key has been created for a sandbox API account please set UseSandbox to true, but not all endpoints will work as expected. For more information, refer to the TaxJar developer documentation.
Built-in Connection String Designer
For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the TaxJar JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.
java -jar cdata.jdbc.taxjar.jar
Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.
A typical JDBC URL is below:
jdbc:taxjar:APIKey=3bb04218ef8t80efdf1739abf7257144;
Build the JDBC Foreign Data Wrapper
The Foreign Data Wrapper can be installed as an extension to PostgreSQL, without recompiling PostgreSQL. The jdbc2_fdw extension is used as an example (downloadable here).
- Add a symlink from the shared object for your version of the JRE to /usr/lib/libjvm.so. For example:
ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server/libjvm.so /usr/lib/libjvm.so
- Start the build:
make install USE_PGXS=1
Query TaxJar Data as a PostgreSQL Database
After you have installed the extension, follow the steps below to start executing queries to TaxJar data:
- Log into your database.
-
Load the extension for the database:
CREATE EXTENSION jdbc2_fdw;
-
Create a server object for TaxJar:
CREATE SERVER TaxJar FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER jdbc2_fdw OPTIONS ( drivername 'cdata.jdbc.taxjar.TaxJarDriver', url 'jdbc:taxjar:APIKey=3bb04218ef8t80efdf1739abf7257144;', querytimeout '15', jarfile '/home/MyUser/CData/CData\ JDBC\ Driver\ for\ Salesforce MyDriverEdition/lib/cdata.jdbc.taxjar.jar');
-
Create a user mapping for the username and password of a user known to the MySQL daemon.
CREATE USER MAPPING for postgres SERVER TaxJar OPTIONS ( username 'admin', password 'test');
-
Create a foreign table in your local database:
postgres=# CREATE FOREIGN TABLE orders ( orders_id text, orders_TransactionID text, orders_UserID numeric) SERVER TaxJar OPTIONS ( table_name 'orders');
postgres=# SELECT * FROM orders;