TimeCamp Reporting and Star Schemas in OBIEE

The CData ODBC Driver for TimeCamp is a standard database driver that can integrate real-time access to TimeCamp data into your data warehouse or directly into your reporting tool. This article shows how to bypass the data warehouse and import operational TimeCamp data into Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE).

See the knowledge base for ODBC integrations with ETL tools like Informatica PowerCenter. For an ETL solution into Oracle Warehouse Builder, use the driver with the Oracle ODBC Gateway to Access TimeCamp Data as a Remote Oracle Database.

Connect to TimeCamp as an ODBC Data Source

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.

Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the TimeCamp Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\TimeCamp.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for TimeCamp (see below).

TimeCamp API Profile Settings

TimeCamp uses token-based authentication. To obtain an API Token:

1. Log in to your TimeCamp account at https://app.timecamp.com
2. Click your profile avatar in the top-right corner
3. Select Profile Settings
4. Copy the API token shown at the bottom of the page

After obtaining your API Token, set the following connection properties:

• AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.

Set the following in the ProfileSettings connection property:

• APIKey: Set this to your TimeCamp API token.

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.

Import TimeCamp Metadata

Follow the steps below to use the OBIEE Client Tools to import TimeCamp metadata into an OBIEE repository. You can then integrate TimeCamp data into your business models.

1. Open the Administration Tool and click File -> New Repository.

2. In the Connection Type menu, select ODBC 3.5 and select the CData DSN.
3. Select the metadata types you want to import under the Relational Sources option and then select TimeCamp tables.