To address this, we bundled all components together into a simple click-through install process on both Mac OSX and Windows 7/10. As a result, the process was error-prone and did not represent an ideal user experience. Prior to the release of our ODBC driver, setting up a connection to the BI Connector using the MySQL ODBC driver involved multiple steps, and several different software components. Given that the BI Connector provides a MySQL interface we have been asked why not just utilize the existing MySQL, or similar, ODBC drivers? There are a few reasons for this but our primary motivation was to improve the end-user experience by making installation and set up simple and easy.
These ODBC connections are managed by underlying drivers that handle communication and the transfer of data between client applications and a defined data source.
Of course, there are many applications - used primarily by analysts and other business users - which do not support direct MySQL connections and therefore, rely on ODBC to gain access to external SQL data sources. Results are then returned in a standard tabular format and can be consumed by any application that supports direct connection to MySQL. The BI Connector acts as a SQL proxy and converts incoming SQL queries to equivalent MongoDB Query Language (MQL). The MongoDB BI Connector provides access to MongoDB data by abstracting rich, hierarchical document structure and presenting it as a tabular, relational schema via a MySQL interface. MongoDB Connector for Business Intelligence But before diving into specifics of the driver, it will be helpful to review some information about the BI Connector, how it functions, and what use cases it is intended to serve. This driver makes it incredibly simple to connect to MongoDB data using analytics tools such as Microsoft Excel, Qlik, Microstrategy Desktop, Tableau Desktop, and PowerBI. Earlier this month, we released the new ODBC driver for the MongoDB Connector for Business Intelligence (BI Connector).