Connect to Amazon Athena Data in Claris FileMaker Pro

Claris FileMaker is a low-code database application development tool that allows users to create custom apps for managing and organizing data. It combines a powerful relational database engine with an intuitive interface, enabling both technical and non-technical users to design and deploy applications across desktop, web, and mobile platforms.

In this article, we'll explore how to use the CData ODBC Driver for Amazon Athena in FileMaker to connect to Amazon Athena data.

Getting Started

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Create an ODBC Data Source for Amazon Athena

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.

Authenticating to Amazon Athena

To authorize Amazon Athena requests, provide the credentials for an administrator account or for an IAM user with custom permissions: Set AccessKey to the access key Id. Set SecretKey to the secret access key.

Note: Though you can connect as the AWS account administrator, it is recommended to use IAM user credentials to access AWS services.

Obtaining the Access Key

To obtain the credentials for an IAM user, follow the steps below:

1. Sign into the IAM console.
2. In the navigation pane, select Users.
3. To create or manage the access keys for a user, select the user and then select the Security Credentials tab.

To obtain the credentials for your AWS root account, follow the steps below:

1. Sign into the AWS Management console with the credentials for your root account.
2. Select your account name or number and select My Security Credentials in the menu that is displayed.
3. Click Continue to Security Credentials and expand the Access Keys section to manage or create root account access keys.

Authenticating from an EC2 Instance

If you are using the CData Data Provider for Amazon Athena 2018 from an EC2 Instance and have an IAM Role assigned to the instance, you can use the IAM Role to authenticate. To do so, set UseEC2Roles to true and leave AccessKey and SecretKey empty. The CData Data Provider for Amazon Athena 2018 will automatically obtain your IAM Role credentials and authenticate with them.

Authenticating as an AWS Role

In many situations it may be preferable to use an IAM role for authentication instead of the direct security credentials of an AWS root user. An AWS role may be used instead by specifying the RoleARN. This will cause the CData Data Provider for Amazon Athena 2018 to attempt to retrieve credentials for the specified role. If you are connecting to AWS (instead of already being connected such as on an EC2 instance), you must additionally specify the AccessKey and SecretKey of an IAM user to assume the role for. Roles may not be used when specifying the AccessKey and SecretKey of an AWS root user.

Authenticating with MFA

For users and roles that require Multi-factor Authentication, specify the MFASerialNumber and MFAToken connection properties. This will cause the CData Data Provider for Amazon Athena 2018 to submit the MFA credentials in a request to retrieve temporary authentication credentials. Note that the duration of the temporary credentials may be controlled via the TemporaryTokenDuration (default 3600 seconds).

Connecting to Amazon Athena

In addition to the AccessKey and SecretKey properties, specify Database, S3StagingDirectory and Region. Set Region to the region where your Amazon Athena data is hosted. Set S3StagingDirectory to a folder in S3 where you would like to store the results of queries.

If Database is not set in the connection, the data provider connects to the default database set in Amazon Athena.

When you configure the DSN, 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.

Connect and sync Amazon Athena data with FileMaker using the CData ODBC Driver for Amazon Athena

Once you configure the CData ODBC Driver for Amazon Athena, you can connect to live Amazon Athena data in FileMaker and use it in your applications. In this section, we'll walk through the steps to connect live Amazon Athena data to FileMaker.

You can download and install the latest version of FileMaker Pro for your Mac/Windows/Linux systems here: https://www.claris.com/resources/downloads/.

Importing Amazon Athena data using FileMaker's ODBC Import Function

Follow the steps below to easily import Amazon Athena data using the ODBC import feature:

1. Open FileMaker Pro. Navigate to Create from the left panel and select Blank > Create.

2. Enter a desired filename and click Save.
3. In the Manage Database window, go to the Tables tab and create or rename the table where you want to display Amazon Athena data.

4. In the Fields tab, add the required fields to the table.

5. In the Relationships tab, define table relationships if your database has multiple tables, then click OK.
6. To reopen and modify the table structure later, go to File > Manage > Database.
7. To import Amazon Athena data via the CData ODBC Driver for Amazon Athena, navigate to File > Import Records > ODBC Data Source.

8. In the Select ODBC Data Source window, choose CData ODBC Driver for Amazon Athena and click Create. Enter your Amazon Athena username and password, then click OK.

9. In the SQL Query Builder window, select the desired table from the Tables section and choose the relevant columns from the Columns section. Click Insert into SQL Query after each selection to automatically generate a query that retrieves data from Amazon Athena. You can also manually edit the query using WHERE and ORDER BY clauses or use the tabs provided in the SQL Query Builder. Click Execute to run the query.

10. In the Specify Import Order window, define the import order for the target fields. Select Add between source and target to add new records to the target table from the selected fields. Click Import.

You have now successfully imported Amazon Athena data into FileMaker Pro using the CData ODBC Driver for Amazon Athena. To perform incremental updates, change the import order to "Update" or use "Replace" based on your use case.

Process Amazon Athena data at design time

You can sort and aggregate data, as well as calculate summary functions while browsing tables. To manipulate the view of data at design time, complete the following steps:

• Switch to Preview Mode: Click the Preview at the top to check how the Amazon Athena data with look before you print it.
• Switch to Table View: Click the table icon in the View As menu in the main toolbar of the application.

Aggregate and summarize

Follow the steps below to group column values and display summaries, as shown in the screenshot:

• Sort: Click the arrow in the NumberOfEmployees column header and choose Sort Ascending from the menu.
• Group: In the same menu, click Add Trailing Group by Industry to group the values and insert a summary row. Alternatively, click Add Leading Group to add a summary row at the beginning.
• Summarize: Select a summary option from the Trailing Subtotals menu for a grouped column.

Create a bar chart

Use the following steps to create a simple bar chart showing the total NumberOfEmployees for each Industry:

1. Click the arrow in the NumberOfEmployees column header and select Chart by NumberOfEmployees.
   • If you've already grouped the table by a column (e.g., Industry), you can chart NumberOfEmployees by that column.
   
2. In the Chart Setup window:
   • Click the button next to the Data box to add the x-axis column.
   • Choose the appropriate column in the dialog that appears.
   • For the y-axis, select a summary option from the Summary menu.

Get Started Today

Download a free 30-day trial of the CData ODBC Driver for Amazon Athena to integrate Amazon Athena data into Claris FileMaker and work with Amazon Athena data in your FileMaker applications.

Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.