How to connect PolyBase to Bullhorn CRM

PolyBase for SQL Server allows you to query external data by using the same Transact-SQL syntax used to query a database table. When paired with the CData ODBC Driver for Bullhorn CRM, you get access to your Bullhorn CRM data directly alongside your SQL Server data. This article describes creating an external data source and external tables to grant access to live Bullhorn CRM data using T-SQL queries.

NOTE: PolyBase is only available on SQL Server 19 and above, and only for Standard SQL Server.

The CData ODBC drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live Bullhorn CRM data using PolyBase due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SQL Server to Bullhorn CRM, the driver pushes down supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Bullhorn CRM and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. And with PolyBase, you can also join SQL Server data with Bullhorn CRM data, using a single query to pull data from distributed sources.

Connect to Bullhorn CRM

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. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs. To create an external data source in SQL Server using PolyBase, configure a System DSN (CData Bullhorn CRM Sys is created automatically).

Begin by providing your Bullhorn CRM account credentials in the following:

• DataCenterCode: Set this to the data center code which responds to your data center. Refer to the list of data-center-specific Bullhorn API URLs: https://bullhorn.github.io/Data-Center-URLs/

If you are uncertain about your data center code, codes like CLS2, CLS21, etc. are cluster IDs that are contained in a user's browser URL (address bar) once they are logged in.

Example: https://cls21.bullhornstaffing.com/BullhornSTAFFING/MainFrame.jsp?#no-ba... indicates that the logged in user is on CLS21.

Authenticating with OAuth

Bullhorn CRM uses the OAuth 2.0 authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, create and configure a custom OAuth app. See the Help documentation for more information.

Click "Test Connection" to ensure that the DSN is connected to Bullhorn CRM properly. Navigate to the Tables tab to review the table definitions for Bullhorn CRM.

Create an External Data Source for Bullhorn CRM Data

After configuring the connection, you need to create a master encryption key and a credential database for the external data source.

Creating a Master Encryption Key

Execute the following SQL command to create a new master key, 'ENCRYPTION,' to encrypt the credentials for the external data source.

CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'password';

Creating a Credential Database

Execute the following SQL command to create credentials for the external data source connected to Bullhorn CRM data.

NOTE: Since Bullhorn CRM does not require a User or Password to authenticate, you may use whatever values you wish for IDENTITY and SECRET.

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL bullhorncrm_creds
WITH IDENTITY = 'username', SECRET = 'password';

Create an External Data Source for Bullhorn CRM

Execute a CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE SQL command to create an external data source for Bullhorn CRM with PolyBase:

• Set the LOCATION parameter , using the DSN and credentials configured earlier.

For Bullhorn CRM, set SERVERNAME to the URL or address for your server (e.g. 'localhost' or '127.0.0.1' for local servers; the remote URL for remote servers). Leave PORT empty. PUSHDOWN is set to ON by default, meaning the ODBC Driver can leverage server-side processing for complex queries.

CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE cdata_bullhorncrm_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData Bullhorn CRM Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = bullhorncrm_creds
);

Create External Tables for Bullhorn CRM

After creating the external data source, use CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statements to link to Bullhorn CRM data from your SQL Server instance. The table column definitions must match those exposed by the CData ODBC Driver for Bullhorn CRM. You can refer to the Tables tab of the DSN Configuration Wizard to see the table definition.

Sample CREATE TABLE Statement

The statement to create an external table based on a Bullhorn CRM Candidate would look similar to the following:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE Candidate(
  Id [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  CandidateName [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='Candidate',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_bullhorncrm_source
);

Having created external tables for Bullhorn CRM in your SQL Server instance, you are now able to query local and remote data simultaneously. Thanks to built-in query processing in the CData ODBC Driver, you know that as much query processing as possible is being pushed to Bullhorn CRM, freeing up local resources and computing power. Download a free, 30-day trial of the ODBC Driver for Bullhorn CRM and start working with live Bullhorn CRM data alongside your SQL Server data today.