How to connect to Certinia Data in DBVisualizer

The CData JDBC Driver for Certinia implements JDBC standards to provide connectivity to Certinia data in applications ranging from business intelligence tools to IDEs. This article shows how to establish a connection to Certinia data in DBVisualizer and use the table editor to edit and save Certinia data.

Create a New Driver Definition for Certinia Data

Follow the steps below to use the Driver Manager to provide connectivity to Certinia data from DBVisualizer tools.

1. In DBVisualizer, click Tools -> Driver Manager.
2. Click the plus sign "" to create a new driver.
3. Select "Custom" as the template.
4. On the Driver Settings tab:
   • Set Name to a user-friendly name (e.g. "CData Certinia Driver")
   • Set URL Format to jdbc:certinia: 👁 Setting the Driver Settings (Salesforce is shown).
     
   • In Driver artifacts and jar files (jars are loaded in order from top):
     1. Click the plus sign "" -> "Add Files"
     2. Navigate to the "lib" folder in the installation directory (C:\Program Files\CData JDBC Driver for Certinia XXXX\)
     3. Select the JAR file (cdata.jdbc.Certinia.jar) and click "Open"
     👁 Loading the driver JAR file.
     
5. The Driver Class should populate automatically. If not, select class (cdata.jdbc.certinia.CertiniaDriver).

👁 The configured JDBC driver. (Salesforce is shown.)

Define the Connection to the JDBC Data Source

Close the "Driver Manager" and follow the steps below to save connection properties in the JDBC URL.

1. In the "Databases" tab, click the plus sign "" and select the driver you just created.

2. In the "Connection" section, set the following options:

   • Database Type: If you selected the wizard option, the database type is automatically detected. If you selected the "No Wizard" option, select the Generic or Auto Detect option in the Database Type menu.
   • Driver Type: Select the driver you just created.

   • Database URL: Enter the full JDBC URL. The syntax of the JDBC URL is jdbc:certinia: followed by the connection properties in a semicolon-separated list of name-value pairs.

     There are several authentication methods available for connecting to Certinia: login credentials, SSO, and OAuth.

     Authenticating with a Login and Token

     Set the User and Password to your login credentials. Additionally, set the SecurityToken. By default, the SecurityToken is required, but you can make it optional by allowing a range of trusted IP addresses.

     To disable the security token:

     1. Log in to Certinia and enter "Network Access" in the Quick Find box in the setup section.
     2. Add your IP address to the list of trusted IP addresses.

     To obtain the security token:

     1. Open the personal information page on certinia.com.
     2. Click the link to reset your security token. The token will be emailed to you.
     3. Specify the security token in the SecurityToken connection property or append it to the Password.

     Authenticating with OAuth

     If you do not have access to the user name and password or do not want to require them, use the OAuth user consent flow. See the OAuth section in the Help for an authentication guide.

     Connecting to Certinia Sandbox Accounts

     Set UseSandbox to true (false by default) to use a Certinia sandbox account. Ensure that you specify a sandbox user name in User.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.certinia.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.

     A typical connection string is below:

     jdbc:certinia:User=myUser;Password=myPassword;Security Token=myToken;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;
     

   • NOTE: Database Userid and Database Password correspond with the User and Password properties for Certinia.
3. On the Connection tab, click Connect. 👁 A newly configured Database Connection. (Salesforce is shown.)
   

To browse through tables exposed by the Certinia JDBC Driver, right-click a table and click "Open in New Tab."

To execute SQL queries, use the SQL Commander tool: Click SQL Commander -> New SQL Commander. Select the Database Connection, Database, and Schema from the available menus.

See the "Supported SQL" chapter in the help documentation for more information on the supported SQL. See the "Data Model" chapter for table-specific information.

👁 The results of a query in DBVisualizer. (Salesforce is shown.)

More Information & Free Trial

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Certinia and start working with your live Certinia data in DbVisualizer. Join the CData Community or reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.