Analyze Live Typeform Data in SAS Viya

SAS Viya is an analytics platform that enhances data management, machine learning, and analytics, fostering efficient decision-making and insights. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Typeform data for building predictive models, crafting stunning insights to make data-driven decisions, and more. This article shows how to connect to Connect AI from the SAS Viya cloud platform and integrate live Typeform data into your self-service AI and analytics deployments.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL, cloud-to-cloud interface for Typeform, allowing you to easily integrate with live Typeform data in SAS Viya — without replicating the data. CData Connect AI looks exactly like a SQL Server database to SAS Viya and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to Typeform, leveraging server-side processing to return Typeform data quickly.

Configure Typeform Connectivity for SAS Viya

Connectivity to Typeform from SAS Viya is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Typeform data from SAS Viya, we start by creating and configuring a Typeform connection.

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

2. Select "Typeform" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Typeform.

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

   TypeForm API Profile Settings

   Authentication to TypeForm uses the OAuth standard.

   To authenticate to TypeForm, you must first register and configure an OAuth application with TypeForm here: https://admin.typeform.com/account#/section/tokens. Your app will be assigned a client ID and a client secret which can be set in the connection string. More information on setting up an OAuth application can be found at https://developer.typeform.com/get-started/.

   Note that there are several different use scenarios which all require different redirect URIs:

   • CData Desktop Applications: CData desktop applications (Sync, API Server, ArcESB) accept OAuth tokens at /src/oauthCallback.rst. The host and port is the same as the default port used by the application. For example, if you use http://localhost:8019/ to access CData Sync then the redirect URI will be http://localhost:8019/src/oauthCallback.rst.
   • CData Cloud Applications: CData cloud applications are similar to their desktop counterparts. If you access Connect AI at https://1.2.3.4/ then you should use the redirect https://1.2.3.4/src/oauthCallback.rst.
   • Desktop Application: When using a desktop application, the URI https://localhost:33333 is recommended.
   • Web Application: When developing a web application using the driver, use your own URI here such as https://my-website.com/oauth.

   After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

   • AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
   • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to manage the process to obtain the OAuthAccessToken.
   • OAuthClientId: Set this to the Client Id that is specified in your app settings.
   • OAuthClientSecret: Set this to Client Secret that is specified in your app settings.
   • CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI you specified in your app settings.
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Typeform 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.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Typeform data from SAS Viya.

Connecting to CData Connect AI from SAS Viya

The following steps detail the process of loading data from Typeform into SAS Viya using the established connection in CData Connect AI.

1. Download and install the CData Connect AI JDBC driver.
   • Open the Integrations page of CData Connect AI.
   • Search for and select JDBC.
   • Download and run the setup file.
   • When the installation is complete, the JAR file can be found in the installation directory (inside the lib folder).
2. Now, log in to SAS Viya and navigate to the Applications Menu at the top-left corner.
3. Select Develop Code and Flows from the Analytics Life Cycle topic.
4. Navigate to the Explorer tab and click on SAS Server on the left panel.
5. Follow the steps to upload the JAR file of the CData Connect JDBC driver:
   • Right-click on the "Home" directory.
   • Click on Upload files.
   • Place the JAR file in the specified location and note its file path.
6. Once done, navigate to the Libraries tab and click on Create a new library connection (on the top left corner as shown below) for the CData Connect JDBC.
7. Enter the library connection settings:
   • Connection name: enter a name for your connection
   • Library name (libref): enter a reference for your library
   • Library type: choose "SAS/ACCESS to JDBC"
8. Click on the Properties tab and set Library attributes to READONLY.
9. Click the Connection Options tab and enter the following details:
   • Hive JDBC driver's class name: cdata.jdbc.connect.ConnectDriver
   • Java CLASSPATH: enter the file path to the JAR driver file (Refer to Step 5)
10. Click on Test connection. If it succeeds, click on Save and connect.
11. Click on to add a new tab and select SAS program.
12. Fill in the code block below with your setup parameters:
    • Libref: enter the library reference you defined in Step 9.
    • ClassPath: enter the file path to the JAR driver file.
    • Username: enter your CData Connect username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect interface. For example, [email protected].
    • DefaultCatalog: enter the connection configured in CData Connect AI that you want to query.
    • Password: enter the PAT you generated in the "Add a Personal Access Token" section.

    
    libname [Libref] JDBC   
    classpath=[ClassPath]  
    class="cdata.jdbc.connect.ConnectDriver"     
    URL="jdbc:Connect:AuthScheme=Basic;User=[Username];DefaultCatalog=[DefaultCatalog];DefaultSchema=dbo;Password=[PAT]"; 
     
    proc sql; 
    
    SELECT * FROM [Libref].MyTable; 
    
    quit; 
    

13. Click on Run. You can see the data load from CData Connect AI into SAS Viya.

Live Access to Typeform Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to Typeform data from SAS Viya. You can build predictive models, craft insights to make data-driven decisions, and more — all without replicating Typeform data.

Try Connect AI and get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.