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

Connect to Certinia Data as a JDBC Data Source

To connect to Certinia 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.certinia.CertiniaDriver
  

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

  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.)
  

  A typical JDBC URL is below:

  jdbc:certinia:User=myUser;Password=myPassword;Security Token=myToken;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 Certinia Data as a PostgreSQL Database

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

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

   CREATE EXTENSION jdbc2_fdw;
   

3. Create a server object for Certinia:

   CREATE SERVER Certinia 
   FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER jdbc2_fdw OPTIONS (
   drivername 'cdata.jdbc.certinia.CertiniaDriver',
   url 'jdbc:certinia:User=myUser;Password=myPassword;Security Token=myToken;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;',
   querytimeout '15',
   jarfile '/home/MyUser/CData/CData\ JDBC\ Driver\ for\ Salesforce MyDriverEdition/lib/cdata.jdbc.certinia.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 Certinia OPTIONS (
   username 'admin', 
   password 'test');
   

5. Create a foreign table in your local database:

   postgres=# CREATE FOREIGN TABLE account (
   account_id text,
   account_BillingState text,
   account_Name numeric) 
   SERVER Certinia OPTIONS (
   table_name 'account');
   

You can now execute read/write commands to Certinia:

postgres=# SELECT * FROM account;