Integrate Azure Data Catalog Data in the Pentaho Report Designer

The CData JDBC driver for Azure Data Catalog data enables access to live data from dashboards and reports. This article shows how to connect to Azure Data Catalog data as a JDBC data source and publish reports based on Azure Data Catalog data in Pentaho.

Connect and Create a Report

1. Copy the JAR file of the driver, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory, to the \Report-Designer\lib\jdbc\ folder in the Pentaho directory.
2. Run the report-designer.bat file in the \Report-Designer\ folder to open the Report-Designer UI.

3. Create a new data source with the driver by clicking Data -> Add Data Source -> Advanced -> JDBC (Custom) and then creating a new Azure Data Catalog connection. In the resulting dialog, configure the connection properties as shown below.

   • Custom Connection URL property: Enter the JDBC URL. This starts with jdbc:azuredatacatalog: and is followed by a semicolon-separated list of connection properties.

     You can optionally set the following to read the different catalog data returned from Azure Data Catalog.

     CatalogName: Set this to the CatalogName associated with your Azure Data Catalog. To get your Catalog name, navigate to your Azure Portal home page > Data Catalog > Catalog Name

     Connect Using OAuth Authentication

     You must use OAuth to authenticate with Azure Data Catalog. OAuth requires the authenticating user to interact with Azure Data Catalog using the browser. For more information, refer to the OAuth section in the help documentation.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.azuredatacatalog.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.

     Below is a typical JDBC URL:

     jdbc:azuredatacatalog:InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
   • Custom Driver Class Name: Enter cdata.jdbc.azuredatacatalog.AzureDataCatalogDriver.
   • User Name: The username to authenticate with.
   • Password: The password to authenticate with.

Add Azure Data Catalog Data to a Report

You are now ready to create a report with Azure Data Catalog data.

1. Add the Azure Data Catalog source to your report: Click Data -> Add Data Source -> JDBC and select the data source.

2. Configure the query. This article uses the one below:

   SELECT DslAddressDatabase, Type FROM Tables WHERE Name = 'FactProductInventory'
3. Drag a chart onto your report and double-click it to edit the chart. Run the report to display the chart. You can use the results of this query to create a simple chart for the Tables table.
4. Finally, run the report to see the chart.