Connect to xBase Data as an External Source in Dremio

The CData JDBC Driver for xBase implements JDBC Standards and allows various applications, including Dremio, to work with live xBase data. Dremio is a data lakehouse platform designed to empower self-service, interactive analytics on the data lake. With the CData JDBC driver, you can include live xBase data as a part of your enterprise data lake. This article describes how to connect to xBase data from Dremio as an External Source.

The CData JDBC Driver enables high-speed access to live xBase data in Dremio. Once you install the driver, authenticate with xBase and gain immediate access to xBase data within your data lake. By surfacing xBase data using native data types and handling complex filters, aggregations, & other operations automatically, the CData JDBC Driver grants seamless access to xBase data.

Prerequisites

This article assumes you are utilizing Docker to run Dremio. You can create a Docker container with the Dremio service using a command similar to the follow:

docker run -d --name dremio -p 9047:9047 -p 31010:31010 dremio/dremio-oss

Where dremio is the name of the container, 9047 is the container's port for the Dremio web interface and 31010 is the port that maps to the Dremio query service. dremio/dremio-oss specifies the image to use.

Build the ARP Connector

To use the CData JDBC Driver in Dremio, you need to build an Advanced Relation Pushdown (ARP) Connector. You can view the source code for the Connector on GitHub or download the ZIP file (GitHub.com) directly. Once you copy or extract the files, run the following command from the root directory of the connector (the directory containing the pom.xml file) to build the connector.

mvn clean install

NOTE: The CData ARP Connectors are build to be compiled with Java 11. Be sure to install Java 11 and use the correct version. You can update your Java version using a command similar to the following:

sudo update-alternatives --config java

Once the JAR file for the connector is built (in the target directory), you are ready to copy the ARP connector and JDBC Driver to your Dremio instance.

Installing the Connector and JDBC Driver

Install the ARP Connector to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/ and the JDBC Driver for xBase to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/3rdparty. You can use commands similar to the following:

ARP Connector

docker cp PATH\TO\dremio-xbase-plugin-{DREMIO_VERSION}.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/

JDBC Driver for xBase

docker cp PATH\TO\cdata.jdbc.xbase.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/3rdparty/

Connecting to xBase

xBase will now appear as an External Source option in Dremio. The ARP Connector built uses a JDBC URL to connect to xBase data. The JDBC Driver has a built-in connection string designer that you can use (see below).

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

java -jar cdata.jdbc.xbase.jar

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

The DataSource property must be set to the name of the folder that contains the .dbf files. Specify the IncludeFiles property to work with xBase table files having extensions that differ from .dbf. Specify multiple extensions in a comma-separated list.

NOTE: To use the JDBC Driver in Dremio, you will need a license (full or trial) and a Runtime Key (RTK). For more information on obtaining this license (or a trial), contact our sales team.

Add the Runtime Key (RTK) to the JDBC URL. You will end up with a JDBC URL similar to the following:

jdbc:xbase:RTK=5246...;DataSource=MyDBFFilesFolder;

Access xBase as an External Source

To add xBase as an External Source, click to add a new source and select xBase. Copy the JDBC URL and paste it into the New xBase Source wizard.

Save the connection and you are ready to query live xBase data in Dremio, easily incorporating xBase data into your data lake.

More Information & Free Trial

Using the CData JDBC Driver for xBase in Dremio, you can incorporate live xBase data into your data lake. Check out our CData JDBC Driver for xBase page for more information about connecting to xBase. Download a free, 30 day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for xBase and get started today.