Use the CData ODBC Driver for TaxJar in MicroStrategy Desktop

MicroStrategy is an analytics and mobility platform that enables data-driven innovation. When paired with the CData ODBC Driver for TaxJar, you gain database-like access to live TaxJar data from MicroStrategy, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. In this article, we walk through adding TaxJar as a data source in MicroStrategy Desktop and creating a simple visualization of TaxJar data.

The CData ODBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live TaxJar data in MicroStrategy due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from MicroStrategy to TaxJar, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to TaxJar 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 TaxJar data using native MicroStrategy data types.

Connect to TaxJar as an ODBC Data Source

Information for connecting to TaxJar follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments.

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.

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 TaxJar 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

For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).

Connect to and Visualize TaxJar Data using MicroStrategy Desktop

In addition to connecting TaxJar in MicroStrategy enterprise products, you can connect to TaxJar in MicroStrategy Desktop. Follow the steps below to add TaxJar data as a dataset and create visualizations and reports of TaxJar data.

1. Open MicroStrategy Desktop and create a new dossier.
2. In the datasets panel, click New Data, select Databases, and select Type a Query as the Import Option.
3. Add a new data source and choose DSN data sources.
4. Choose the DSN you previously configured (likely CData TaxJar Sys) and select Generic DBMS in the Version menu.
5. Set the User and Password properties for the DSN (or use placeholder values) and name the data source.
6. Select the new database instance to view the tables. You may need to manually click the search icon in the Available Tables section to see the tables.
7. Create a SQL query for the TaxJar data (see below) and click Execute SQL to test the query. SELECT * FROM Orders NOTE: Since we create a live connection, we can execute a SELECT * query and utilize the filtering and aggregation features native to the MicroStrategy products.
8. Click Finish and choose to connect live.
9. Choose a visualization, choose fields to display (data types are discovered automatically through dynamic metadata discovery) and apply any filters to create a new visualization of TaxJar data. Where possible, the complex queries generated by the filters and aggregations will be pushed down to TaxJar, while any unsupported operations (which can include SQL functions and JOIN operations) will be managed client-side by the CData SQL Engine embedded in the driver.
10. Once you are finished configuring the dossier, click File -> Save.

Using the CData ODBC Driver for TaxJar in MicroStrategy Desktop, you can easily create robust visualizations and reports on TaxJar data. Read our other articles on connecting to TaxJar in MicroStrategy and connecting to TaxJar in MicroStrategy Web for more examples.