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Use the API Server and TaxJar ADO.NET Provider to Access TaxJar Data in Microsoft PowerPivot
Use the API Server to connect to live TaxJar data in the PowerPivot business intelligence tool.
This article will explain how to use the API Server and the ADO.NET Provider for TaxJar (or any of 200+ other ADO.NET Providers) to provide TaxJar data as OData services and then consume the data in Microsoft Excel's PowerPivot business intelligence tool. Follow the steps below to retrieve and edit TaxJar data in Power Pivot.
Set Up the API Server
Follow the steps below to begin producing secure TaxJar OData services:
Deploy
The API Server runs on your own server. On Windows, you can deploy using the stand-alone server or IIS. On a Java servlet container, drop in the API Server WAR file. See the help documentation for more information and how-tos.
The API Server is also easy to deploy on Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2, and Heroku.
Connect to TaxJar
After you deploy the API Server and the ADO.NET Provider for TaxJar, provide authentication values and other connection properties needed to connect to TaxJar by clicking Settings -> Connections and adding a new connection in the API Server administration console.
To authenticate to the TaxJar API, 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.
You can then choose the TaxJar entities you want to allow the API Server access to by clicking Settings -> Resources.
Additionally, click Settings -> Server and set the Default Format to XML (Atom) for compatibility with Excel.
Authorize API Server Users
After determining the OData services you want to produce, authorize users by clicking Settings -> Users. The API Server uses authtoken-based authentication and supports the major authentication schemes. Access can also be restricted based on IP address; by default, only connections to the local machine are allowed. You can authenticate as well as encrypt connections with SSL.
Import TaxJar Tables in Power Pivot
Follow the steps below to import tables that can be refreshed on demand:
- In Excel, click the PowerPivot Window icon in the PowerPivot tab to open PowerPivot.
- Click Home -> Get External Data -> From Data Service -> From OData Data Feed.
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Add authentication parameters. Click Advanced and set the Integrated Security option to Basic. You will need to enter the User Id and Password of a user who has access to the CData API Server. Set the password to the user's authtoken.
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In the Base URL box, enter the OData URL of the CData API Server. For example, http://localhost:8032/api.rsc.
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Select which tables you want to import and click Finish.
You can now work with TaxJar data in Power Pivot.
