How to connect PolyBase to ShipStation

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 ShipStation, you get access to your ShipStation data directly alongside your SQL Server data. This article describes creating an external data source and external tables to grant access to live ShipStation 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 ShipStation data using PolyBase due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SQL Server to ShipStation, the driver pushes down supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to ShipStation 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 ShipStation data, using a single query to pull data from distributed sources.

Connect to ShipStation

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 ShipStation Sys is created automatically).

Use the BASIC Authentication standard to connect.

1. Login to your ShipStation account
2. Click on the settings icon in the upper right corner. A column menu will show up on the left
3. Click Account -> API Settings
4. On the API Settings page, note the API Key and API Secret.

Authenticating to ShipStation

• APIKey: Set this to the API key from the API settings page.
• APISecret: Set this to the Secret key from the API settings page.

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

Create an External Data Source for ShipStation 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 ShipStation data.

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

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

Create an External Data Source for ShipStation

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

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

For ShipStation, 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_shipstation_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData ShipStation Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = shipstation_creds
);

Create External Tables for ShipStation

After creating the external data source, use CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statements to link to ShipStation data from your SQL Server instance. The table column definitions must match those exposed by the CData ODBC Driver for ShipStation. 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 ShipStation Tags would look similar to the following:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE Tags(
  Id [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  Color [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='Tags',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_shipstation_source
);

Having created external tables for ShipStation 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 ShipStation, freeing up local resources and computing power. Download a free, 30-day trial of the ODBC Driver for ShipStation and start working with live ShipStation data alongside your SQL Server data today.