Build a PostgreSQL Interface for Asana Data using the CData JDBC Driver

There are a vast number of PostgreSQL clients available on the Internet. From standard Drivers to BI and Analytics tools, PostgreSQL is a popular interface for data access. Using our JDBC Drivers, you can now create PostgreSQL entry-points that you can connect to from any standard client.

To access Asana data as a PostgreSQL database, use the CData JDBC Driver for Asana and a JDBC foreign data wrapper (FDW). In this article, we compile the FDW, install it, and query Asana data from PostgreSQL Server.

Connect to Asana Data as a JDBC Data Source

To connect to Asana as a JDBC data source, you will need the following:

• Driver JAR path: The JAR is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.

• Driver class:

  cdata.jdbc.asana.AsanaDriver
  

• JDBC URL: The URL must start with "jdbc:asana:" and can include any of the connection properties in name-value pairs separated with semicolons.

  You can optionally set the following to refine the data returned from Asana.

  • WorkspaceId: Set this to the globally unique identifier (gid) associated with your Asana Workspace to only return projects from the specified workspace. To get your workspace id, navigate to https://app.asana.com/api/1.0/workspaces while logged into Asana. This displays a JSON object containing your workspace name and Id.
  • ProjectId: Set this to the globally unique identifier (gid) associated with your Asana Project to only return data mapped under the specified project. Project IDs can be found in the URL of your project's Overview page. This will be the numbers directly after /0/.

  Connect Using OAuth Authentication

  You must use OAuth to authenticate with Asana. OAuth requires the authenticating user to interact with Asana using the browser. See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.

  Built-in Connection String Designer

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

  java -jar cdata.jdbc.asana.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.)
  

  A typical JDBC URL is below:

  jdbc:asana:OAuthClientId=YourClientId;OAuthClientSecret=YourClientSecret;CallbackURL='http://localhost:33333';InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;
  

Build the JDBC Foreign Data Wrapper

The Foreign Data Wrapper can be installed as an extension to PostgreSQL, without recompiling PostgreSQL. The jdbc2_fdw extension is used as an example (downloadable here).

1. Add a symlink from the shared object for your version of the JRE to /usr/lib/libjvm.so. For example:

   ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server/libjvm.so /usr/lib/libjvm.so
   

2. Start the build:

   make install USE_PGXS=1
   

Query Asana Data as a PostgreSQL Database

After you have installed the extension, follow the steps below to start executing queries to Asana data:

1. Log into your database.
2. Load the extension for the database:

   CREATE EXTENSION jdbc2_fdw;
   

3. Create a server object for Asana:

   CREATE SERVER Asana 
   FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER jdbc2_fdw OPTIONS (
   drivername 'cdata.jdbc.asana.AsanaDriver',
   url 'jdbc:asana:OAuthClientId=YourClientId;OAuthClientSecret=YourClientSecret;CallbackURL='http://localhost:33333';InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;',
   querytimeout '15',
   jarfile '/home/MyUser/CData/CData\ JDBC\ Driver\ for\ Salesforce MyDriverEdition/lib/cdata.jdbc.asana.jar'); 
   

4. Create a user mapping for the username and password of a user known to the MySQL daemon.

   CREATE USER MAPPING for postgres SERVER Asana OPTIONS (
   username 'admin', 
   password 'test');
   

5. Create a foreign table in your local database:

   postgres=# CREATE FOREIGN TABLE projects (
   projects_id text,
   projects_Id text,
   projects_WorkspaceId numeric) 
   SERVER Asana OPTIONS (
   table_name 'projects');
   

You can now execute SELECT commands to Asana:

postgres=# SELECT * FROM projects;