BigCommerce Reporting in OBIEE with the BigCommerce JDBC Driver

The CData JDBC Driver for BigCommerce is a standard database driver that can integrate real-time access to BigCommerce data into your Java-based reporting server. This article shows how to deploy the driver to Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) and create reports on BigCommerce data that reflect any changes.

Deploy the JDBC Driver

Follow the steps below to add the JDBC driver to WebLogic's classpath.

For WebLogic 12.2.1, simply place the driver JAR and .lic file into DOMAIN_HOME\lib; for example, ORACLE_HOME\user_projects\domains\MY_DOMAIN\lib. These files will be added to the server classpath at startup.

You can also manually add the driver to the classpath: This is required for earlier versions. Prepend the following to PRE_CLASSPATH in setDomainEnv.cmd (Windows) or setDomainEnv.sh (Unix). This script is located in the bin subfolder of the folder for that domain. For example: ORACLE_HOME\user_projects\domains\MY_DOMAIN\bin.

Restart all servers; for example, run the stop and start commands in DOMAIN_HOME\bitools\bin.

Create a JDBC Data Source for BigCommerce

After deploying the JDBC driver, you can create a JDBC data source from BI Publisher.

1. Log into BI Publisher, at the URL http://localhost:9502/analytics, for example, and click Administration -> Manage BI Publisher.
2. Click JDBC Connection -> Add Data Source.
3. Enter the following information:
   • Data Source Name: Enter the name that users will create connections to in their reports.
   • Driver Type: Select Other.
   • Database DriverClass: Enter the driver class, cdata.jdbc.bigcommerce.BigCommerceDriver.
   • Connection String: Enter the JDBC URL.

     BigCommerce authentication is based on the standard OAuth flow. To authenticate, you must initially create an app via the Big Commerce developer platform where you can obtain an OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL. These three parameters will be set as connection properties to your driver.

     Additionally, in order to connect to your BigCommerce Store, you will need your StoreId. To find your Store Id please follow these steps:

     1. Log in to your BigCommerce account.
     2. From the Home Page, select Advanced Settings > API Accounts.
     3. Click Create API Account.
     4. A text box named API Path will appear on your screen.
     5. Inside you can see a URL of the following structure: https://api.bigcommerce.com/stores/{Store Id}/v3.
     6. As demonstrated above, your Store Id will be between the 'stores/' and '/v3' path paramters.
     7. Once you have retrieved your Store Id you can either click Cancel or proceed in creating an API Account in case you do not have one already.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the BigCommerce JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.bigcommerce.jar

     Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

     When you configure the JDBC URL, 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.

     A typical JDBC URL is below:

     jdbc:bigcommerce:OAuthClientId=YourClientId; OAuthClientSecret=YourClientSecret; StoreId='YourStoreID'; CallbackURL='http://localhost:33333'InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
   • Username: Enter the username.
   • Password: Enter the password.
4. In the Security section, select the allowed user roles.

Create Real-Time BigCommerce Reports

You can now create reports and analyses based on real-time BigCommerce data. Follow the steps below to use the standard report wizard to create an interactive report that reflects any changes to BigCommerce data.

1. On the global header, click New -> Data Model.
2. On the Diagram tab, select SQL query in the menu.
3. Enter a name for the query and in the Data Source menu select the BigCommerce JDBC data source you created.
4. Select standard SQL and enter a query like the following: SELECT FirstName, LastName FROM Customers WHERE FirstName = 'Bob'
5. Click View Data to generate the sample data to be used as you build your report.
6. Select the number of rows to include in the sample data, click View, and then click Save As Sample Data.
7. Click Create Report -> Use Data Model.
8. Select Guide Me and on the Select Layout page select the report objects you want to include. In this example we select Chart and Table.
9. Drop a numeric column like LastName onto the Drop Value Here box on the y-axis. Drop a dimension column like FirstName onto the Drop Label Here box on the x-axis.
10. Click Refresh to pick up any changes to the BigCommerce data.