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Azure Data Lake Storage Icon Azure Data Lake Storage ODBC Driver

The Azure Data Lake Storage ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from Azure Data Lake Storage, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Azure Data Lake Storage data like you would a database - read, write, and update Azure Data Lake Storage ADLSData, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

Import Azure Data Lake Storage Data into FileMaker Pro



Create reports that integrate Azure Data Lake Storage data in Filemaker Pro.

One of the strengths of the CData ODBC driver is its ubiquitous support across many applications and platforms. In this article, you will configure the ODBC driver in FileMaker Pro and create data visualizations with Azure Data Lake Storage data.

Query Azure Data Lake Storage Data in FileMaker Pro

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. See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to creating a DSN on Windows or Unix-based systems like Mac OS X and Linux.

Authenticating to a Gen 1 DataLakeStore Account

Gen 1 uses OAuth 2.0 in Azure AD for authentication.

For this, an Active Directory web application is required. You can create one as follows:

  1. Sign in to your Azure Account through the .
  2. Select "Azure Active Directory".
  3. Select "App registrations".
  4. Select "New application registration".
  5. Provide a name and URL for the application. Select Web app for the type of application you want to create.
  6. Select "Required permissions" and change the required permissions for this app. At a minimum, "Azure Data Lake" and "Windows Azure Service Management API" are required.
  7. Select "Key" and generate a new key. Add a description, a duration, and take note of the generated key. You won't be able to see it again.

To authenticate against a Gen 1 DataLakeStore account, the following properties are required:

  • Schema: Set this to ADLSGen1.
  • Account: Set this to the name of the account.
  • OAuthClientId: Set this to the application Id of the app you created.
  • OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the key generated for the app you created.
  • TenantId: Set this to the tenant Id. See the property for more information on how to acquire this.
  • Directory: Set this to the path which will be used to store the replicated file. If not specified, the root directory will be used.

Authenticating to a Gen 2 DataLakeStore Account

To authenticate against a Gen 2 DataLakeStore account, the following properties are required:

  • Schema: Set this to ADLSGen2.
  • Account: Set this to the name of the account.
  • FileSystem: Set this to the file system which will be used for this account.
  • AccessKey: Set this to the access key which will be used to authenticate the calls to the API. See the property for more information on how to acquire this.
  • Directory: Set this to the path which will be used to store the replicated file. If not specified, the root directory will be used.

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.

You can then load Azure Data Lake Storage data into tables in Filemaker Pro:

  1. In your solution, click File -> Import Records -> ODBC Data Source, and select the CData Azure Data Lake Storage DSN.
  2. In the resulting SQL Query Builder wizard, select tables and columns and then click Insert into SQL Query. You can edit this query directly. For example:

    SELECT FullPath, Permission FROM Resources WHERE Type = 'FILE'

    You can use the UI to build filters in the WHERE clause by clicking the WHERE tab.

  3. In the resulting Import Field Mapping wizard, you can define mappings from columns in the data source to the columns in a destination table. To create a new table for the query results, select New Table ("CData ADLS Source") from the Target box, and click Import.

For more information on the SQL that the driver supports out of the box, see the help documentation.

Process Data at Design Time

You can sort and aggregate data, as well as calculate summary functions, while you browse tables. To manipulate the view of data at design time, first complete the two steps below:

  1. Switch to Browse mode: Click the Mode pop-up menu in the footer of the application.
  2. Switch to Table view: Click the table icon in the View As menu in the main toolbar of the application.

Aggregate and Summarize

Follow the procedure below to group column values and then display a summary, as shown in the screenshot below:

  1. Sort: Click the arrow in the FullPath column header and then click Sort Ascending in the resulting menu.
  2. Group: In the menu for the FullPath column click Add Trailing Group by FullPath to group the values and create a subsequent row where summary calculations can be inserted. Click Add Leading Group to introduce the group with a summary.
  3. Summarize: In the menu for a column that has been grouped, select a summary from the Trailing Subtotals menu.

the procedure below to create a simple bar chart that shows the total Permission for each FullPath.

  1. Click the arrow in the Permission column header and click "Chart by Permission" in the menu. If you have already grouped on a column in the Table view, FullPath, for example, you can select the option to chart Permission by FullPath.
  2. In the Chart Setup window, select columns to draw the chart: To add the column for the x-axis, click the button next to the Data box.

Selecting the x-axis and y-axis will draw the chart. You can also process data in the Chart Setup: Set the following options to create a basic chart.

  1. Click the button next to the Data box and select Specify Field Value. Select a column in the resulting dialog.
  2. Select a summary for the y-axis in the Summary menu.