Analyze Avalara AvaTax Data in R

Access Avalara AvaTax data with pure R script and standard SQL on any machine where R and Java can be installed. You can use the CData JDBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax and the RJDBC package to work with remote Avalara AvaTax data in R. By using the CData Driver, you are leveraging a driver written for industry-proven standards to access your data in the popular, open-source R language. This article shows how to use the driver to execute SQL queries to Avalara AvaTax and visualize Avalara AvaTax data by calling standard R functions.

Install R

You can match the driver's performance gains from multi-threading and managed code by running the multithreaded Microsoft R Open or by running open R linked with the BLAS/LAPACK libraries. This article uses Microsoft R Open 3.2.3, which is preconfigured to install packages from the Jan. 1, 2016 snapshot of the CRAN repository. This snapshot ensures reproducibility.

Load the RJDBC Package

To use the driver, download the RJDBC package. After installing the RJDBC package, the following line loads the package:

Connect to Avalara AvaTax as a JDBC Data Source

You will need the following information to connect to Avalara AvaTax as a JDBC data source:

• Driver Class: Set this to cdata.jdbc.avalaraavatax.AvalaraAvataxDriver
• Classpath: Set this to the location of the driver JAR. By default this is the lib subfolder of the installation folder.

The DBI functions, such as dbConnect and dbSendQuery, provide a unified interface for writing data access code in R. Use the following line to initialize a DBI driver that can make JDBC requests to the CData JDBC Driver for Avalara AvaTax:

You can now use DBI functions to connect to Avalara AvaTax and execute SQL queries. Initialize the JDBC connection with the dbConnect function.

The primary method for performing basic authentication is to provide your login credentials, as follows:

• User: Set this to your username.
• Password: Set this to your password.

Optionally, if you are making use of a sandbox environment, set the following:

• UseSandbox: Set this to true if you are authenticating with a sandbox account.

Authenticating Using Account Number and License Key

Alternatively, you can authenticate using your account number and license key. Connect to data using the following:

• AccountId: Set this to your Account Id. The Account Id is listed in the upper right hand corner of the admin console.
• LicenseKey: Set this to your Avalara Avatax license key. You can generate a license key by logging into Avalara Avatax as an account administrator and navigating to Settings -> Reset License Key.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

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

Below is a sample dbConnect call, including a typical JDBC connection string:

Schema Discovery

The driver models Avalara AvaTax APIs as relational tables, views, and stored procedures. Use the following line to retrieve the list of tables:

Execute SQL Queries

You can use the dbGetQuery function to execute any SQL query supported by the Avalara AvaTax API:

You can view the results in a data viewer window with the following command:

Plot Avalara AvaTax Data

You can now analyze Avalara AvaTax data with any of the data visualization packages available in the CRAN repository. You can create simple bar plots with the built-in bar plot function: