Build Charts with Zuora Data in Clear Analytics

The CData ODBC Driver for Zuora enables access to live data from Zuora under the ODBC standard, allowing you work with Zuora data in a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools and directly, using familiar SQL queries. This article shows how to use Clear Analytics, a Microsoft Excel Add-In, to connect to Zuora as an ODBC source and create queries, tables, and charts (including PivotTables) based on Zuora data.

Connect to Zuora Data

Configure the ODBC Data Source Name

If you have not already done so, provide values for the required connection properties in the data source name (DSN). You can use the built-in Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to configure the DSN. This is also the last step of the driver installation. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for a guide to using the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure a DSN.

Zuora uses the OAuth standard to authenticate users. See the online Help documentation for a full OAuth authentication guide.

Configuring Tenant property

In order to create a valid connection with the provider you need to choose one of the Tenant values (USProduction by default) which matches your account configuration. The following is a list with the available options:

• USProduction: Requests sent to https://rest.zuora.com.
• USAPISandbox: Requests sent to https://rest.apisandbox.zuora.com"
• USPerformanceTest: Requests sent to https://rest.pt1.zuora.com"
• EUProduction: Requests sent to https://rest.eu.zuora.com"
• EUSandbox: Requests sent to https://rest.sandbox.eu.zuora.com"

Selecting a Zuora Service

Two Zuora services are available: Data Query and AQuA API. By default ZuoraService is set to AQuADataExport.

DataQuery

The Data Query feature enables you to export data from your Zuora tenant by performing asynchronous, read-only SQL queries. We recommend to use this service for quick lightweight SQL queries.

• The maximum number of input records per table after filters have been applied: 1,000,000
• The maximum number of output records: 100,000
• The maximum number of simultaneous queries submitted for execution per tenant: 5
• The maximum number of queued queries submitted for execution after reaching the limitation of simultaneous queries per tenant: 10
• The maximum processing time for each query in hours: 1
• The maximum size of memory allocated to each query in GB: 2
• The maximum number of indices when using Index Join, in other words, the maximum number of records being returned by the left table based on the unique value used in the WHERE clause when using Index Join: 20,000

AQuADataExport

AQuA API export is designed to export all the records for all the objects ( tables ). AQuA query jobs have the following limitations:

• If a query in an AQuA job is executed longer than 8 hours, this job will be killed automatically.
• The killed AQuA job can be retried three times before returned as failed.

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.

Configure the Data Source in Clear Analytics

1. Open Excel and navigate to the CLEAR ANALYTICS ribbon. Once there, open the Data Manager.
2. Select Database as the data source.
3. In the Set Connection section, click the option to create a new database.
4. Select Microsoft ODBC Data Source as the data source and click OK.
5. Select the DSN you already configured from the drop-down menu.
6. Back on the Set Connection section, select Standard (ANSI ODBC) Query Builder as the SQL Builder Provider and click Next.
7. Select the Schema/Owner and choose the domains (tables) that you wish to use in Clear Analytics.
8. Prepare your data objects as needed by customizing the display names and descriptions of the tables and columns.
9. For the vast majority of the CData ODBC Drivers, you will not set a key date for your domains.
10. In the Domain Relations section, add any relational information between tables.
11. In the Domain Tree section, create groups for your data and add the available items to the groups.
12. Review the summary of your data and click Finish.

Create a Chart with Zuora Data

You are now ready to create a chart with Zuora data.

Create a New Query

1. Click Repository in the CLEAR ANALYTICS ribbon.
2. Create a new query.
3. Select the columns you wish to retrieve.
4. Set the aggregation type for your data (use the blank entry if you do not wish to aggregate the data).
5. Set filters and formulas by dragging columns to the lower window.
6. Name your query and click Save.

Build a Chart Based on a Query Report

1. Click Report Explorer in the CLEAR ANALYTICS ribbon.
2. In the Report Explorer pane, click the 'New Report' icon in the toolbar.
3. Select the query you just created.
4. Name the report and click 'Save and Execute'.
5. Click the Results tab within the Report Explorer
6. Expand your report and drag the chart to the Excel spreadsheet.
7. In the resulting PivotChart window, drag the fields (columns) to the Filters, Legends, Axis (Categories), and Values windows.

With a new data source in Clear Analytics established and a chart created, you are ready to begin analysis of Zuora data. With the ODBC Driver for Zuora and Clear Analytics, you can perform self-service analytics in Excel with live data, directly from Zuora.