Access TaxJar Data in Mule Applications Using the CData JDBC Driver

The CData JDBC Driver for TaxJar connects TaxJar data to Mule applications enabling read , write, update, and delete functionality with familiar SQL queries. The JDBC Driver allows users to easily create Mule applications to backup, transform, report, and analyze TaxJar data.

This article demonstrates how to use the CData JDBC Driver for TaxJar inside of a Mule project to create a Web interface for TaxJar data. The application created allows you to request TaxJar data using an HTTP request and have the results returned as JSON. The exact same procedure outlined below can be used with any CData JDBC Driver to create a Web interface for the 200+ available data sources.

1. Create a new Mule Project in Anypoint Studio.
2. Add an HTTP Connector to the Message Flow.
3. Configure the address for the HTTP Connector.
4. Add a Database Select Connector to the same flow, after the HTTP Connector.
5. Create a new Connection (or edit an existing one) and configure the properties.
   • Set Connection to "Generic Connection"
   • Select the CData JDBC Driver JAR file in the Required Libraries section (e.g. cdata.jdbc.taxjar.jar).
   • Set the URL to the connection string for TaxJar

     To authenticate to the TaxJar API, you will need to first obtain the API Key from the TaxJar UI.

     NOTE: the API is available only for Professional and Premium TaxJar plans.

     If you already have a Professional or Premium plan you can find the API Key by logging in the TaxJar UI and navigating to Account -> TaxJar API. After obtaining the API Key, you can set it in the APIKey connection property.

     Additional Notes

     • By default, the CData connector will retrieve data of the last 3 months in cases where the entity support date range filtering. You can set StartDate to specify the minimum creation date of the data retrieved.
     • If the API Key has been created for a sandbox API account please set UseSandbox to true, but not all endpoints will work as expected. For more information, refer to the TaxJar developer documentation.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.taxjar.jar

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

   • Set the Driver class name to cdata.jdbc.taxjar.TaxJarDriver.
   • Click Test Connection.
6. Set the SQL Query Text to a SQL query to request TaxJar data. For example: SELECT TransactionID, UserID FROM Orders WHERE TransactionID = '123'
7. Add a Transform Message Component to the flow.
8. Set the Output script to the following to convert the payload to JSON:

   %dw 2.0
   output application/json
   ---
   payload
           

9. To view your TaxJar data, navigate to the address you configured for the HTTP Connector (localhost:8081 by default): http://localhost:8081. The TaxJar data is available as JSON in your Web browser and any other tools capable of consuming JSON endpoints.

At this point, you have a simple Web interface for working with TaxJar data (as JSON data) in custom apps and a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools. Download a free, 30 day trial of the JDBC Driver for TaxJar and see the CData difference in your Mule Applications today.