Use the CData JDBC Driver for Zuora in MicroStrategy

MicroStrategy is an analytics and mobility platform that enables data-driven innovation. When you pair MicroStrategy with the CData JDBC Driver for Zuora, you gain database-like access to live Zuora data from MicroStrategy, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. In this article, we walk through creating a database instance for Zuora in MicroStrategy Developer and create a Warehouse Catalog for the Zuora data.

The CData JDBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Zuora data in MicroStrategy due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from MicroStrategy to Zuora, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Zuora and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. With built-in dynamic metadata querying, you can visualize and analyze Zuora data using native MicroStrategy data types.

Connect to Zuora in MicroStrategy Developer

You can connect to Zuora in MicroStrategy Developer by adding a database instance based on the CData JDBC Driver for Zuora.^* Before you begin, you will need to install the JDBC Driver for Zuora on the machine hosting the MicroStrategy Intelligence Server that your instance of MicroStrategy Developer is connected to.

1. Open MicroStrategy Developer and select a Project Source.
2. Navigate to Administration -> Configuration Managers -> Database Instances and right-click to add a new instance.
3. Name the instance, select Generic DBMS as the database connection type, and create a new database connection.
4. In the database connection wizard, name the connection and create a new Database Login name, setting the user and password for Zuora.
5. On the Advanced tab for the connection wizard, set the additional connection string parameters as follows.
   • Add the JDBC keyword to the connection string.
   • Set MSTR_JDBC_JAR_FOLDER to the path of the directory containing the JAR file for the JDBC driver. (C:\Program Files\CData JDBC Driver for Zuora\lib\ on Windows.)
   • Set DRIVER to cdata.jdbc.zuora.ZuoraDriver, the driver class.
   • Set URL to the JDBC URL for the Zuora driver, which contains the necessary connection properties.

     Zuora uses the OAuth standard to authenticate users. See the online Help documentation for a full OAuth authentication guide.

     Configuring Tenant property

     In order to create a valid connection with the provider you need to choose one of the Tenant values (USProduction by default) which matches your account configuration. The following is a list with the available options:

     • USProduction: Requests sent to https://rest.zuora.com.
     • USAPISandbox: Requests sent to https://rest.apisandbox.zuora.com"
     • USPerformanceTest: Requests sent to https://rest.pt1.zuora.com"
     • EUProduction: Requests sent to https://rest.eu.zuora.com"
     • EUSandbox: Requests sent to https://rest.sandbox.eu.zuora.com"

     Selecting a Zuora Service

     Two Zuora services are available: Data Query and AQuA API. By default ZuoraService is set to AQuADataExport.

     DataQuery

     The Data Query feature enables you to export data from your Zuora tenant by performing asynchronous, read-only SQL queries. We recommend to use this service for quick lightweight SQL queries.

     Limitations
     • The maximum number of input records per table after filters have been applied: 1,000,000
     • The maximum number of output records: 100,000
     • The maximum number of simultaneous queries submitted for execution per tenant: 5
     • The maximum number of queued queries submitted for execution after reaching the limitation of simultaneous queries per tenant: 10
     • The maximum processing time for each query in hours: 1
     • The maximum size of memory allocated to each query in GB: 2
     • The maximum number of indices when using Index Join, in other words, the maximum number of records being returned by the left table based on the unique value used in the WHERE clause when using Index Join: 20,000

     AQuADataExport

     AQuA API export is designed to export all the records for all the objects ( tables ). AQuA query jobs have the following limitations:

     Limitations
     • If a query in an AQuA job is executed longer than 8 hours, this job will be killed automatically.
     • The killed AQuA job can be retried three times before returned as failed.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.zuora.jar

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

     When you configure the JDBC URL, 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.

   Typical additional connection string properties follow:

   JDBC;MSTR_JDBC_JAR_FOLDER=PATH\TO\JAR\;DRIVER=cdata.jdbc.zuora.ZuoraDriver;URL={jdbc:zuora:OAuthClientID=MyOAuthClientId;OAuthClientSecret=MyOAuthClientSecret;Tenant=USProduction;ZuoraService=DataQuery;};
6. Ensure that you have not selected an ODBC data source (this will trigger MicroStrategy to use the additional connection string parameters to build the database instance) and click OK.
7. Click OK to close the database instance wizard.
8. In the Project Source, right-click the project and open the Project configuration.
9. Navigate to Database Instances, select the newly created database instance, and click OK.
10. Close MicroStrategy Developer and restart the connected MicroStrategy Intelligence Server to complete the database instance creation.

With the database instance configured, you will now be able to connect to Zuora data from the Warehouse Catalog and Data Import.

Connect to Zuora Data from the Warehouse Catalog

Once you have created a database instance based on the JDBC Driver for Zuora, you can connect to data from the Warehouse Catalog.

1. Select your project and click Schema -> Warehouse Catalog.
2. In the Read Settings for the Catalog, click Settings and set the queries to retrieve the schema:
   • To retrieve the list of tables, use the following query: SELECT * FROM SYS_TABLES
   • To retrieve the list of columns for selected tables, use the following query: SELECT DISTINCT CatalogName NAME_SPACE, TableName TAB_NAME, ColumnName COL_NAME, DataTypeName DATA_TYPE, Length DATA_LEN, NumericPrecision DATA_PREC, NumericScale DATA_SCALE FROM SYS_TABLECOLUMNS WHERE TableName IN (#TABLE_LIST#) ORDER BY 1,2,3
3. Select tables to be used in the project.

Using the CData JDBC Driver for Zuora in MicroStrategy, you can easily create robust visualizations and reports on Zuora data. Read our other articles on connecting to Zuora in MictroStrategy Web and connecting to Zuora in MicroStrategy Desktop for more information.

Note: Connecting using a JDBC Driver requires a 3- or 4-Tier Architecture.