Integrate AlloyDB Data in the Pentaho Report Designer

The CData JDBC driver for AlloyDB data enables access to live data from dashboards and reports. This article shows how to connect to AlloyDB data as a JDBC data source and publish reports based on AlloyDB 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 AlloyDB connection. In the resulting dialog, configure the connection properties as shown below.

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

     The following connection properties are usually required in order to connect to AlloyDB.

     • Server: The host name or IP of the server hosting the AlloyDB database.
     • User: The user which will be used to authenticate with the AlloyDB server.
     • Password: The password which will be used to authenticate with the AlloyDB server.

     You can also optionally set the following:

     • Database: The database to connect to when connecting to the AlloyDB Server. If this is not set, the user's default database will be used.
     • Port: The port of the server hosting the AlloyDB database. This property is set to 5432 by default.

     Authenticating with Standard Authentication

     Standard authentication (using the user/password combination supplied earlier) is the default form of authentication.

     No further action is required to leverage Standard Authentication to connect.

     Authenticating with pg_hba.conf Auth Schemes

     There are additional methods of authentication available which must be enabled in the pg_hba.conf file on the AlloyDB server.

     Find instructions about authentication setup on the AlloyDB Server here.

     Authenticating with MD5 Authentication

     This authentication method must be enabled by setting the auth-method in the pg_hba.conf file to md5.

     Authenticating with SASL Authentication

     This authentication method must be enabled by setting the auth-method in the pg_hba.conf file to scram-sha-256.

     Authenticating with Kerberos

     The authentication with Kerberos is initiated by AlloyDB Server when the ∏ is trying to connect to it. You should set up Kerberos on the AlloyDB Server to activate this authentication method. Once you have Kerberos authentication set up on the AlloyDB Server, see the Kerberos section of the help documentation for details on how to authenticate with Kerberos.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.alloydb.jar
     

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

     👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)
     

     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:alloydb:User=alloydb;Password=admin;Database=alloydb;Server=127.0.0.1;Port=5432

   • Custom Driver Class Name: Enter cdata.jdbc.alloydb.AlloyDBDriver.
   • User Name: The username to authenticate with.
   • Password: The password to authenticate with.
   👁 Required connection properties defined in the JDBC URL. (Salesforce is shown.)
   

Add AlloyDB Data to a Report

You are now ready to create a report with AlloyDB data.

1. Add the AlloyDB 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 ShipName, ShipCity FROM Orders WHERE ShipCountry = 'USA'

   👁 The query to retrieve data, specified in the JDBC data source configuration wizard. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
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 Orders table.
4. Finally, run the report to see the chart.