Access Cosmos DB Data in Mule Applications Using the CData JDBC Driver

The CData JDBC Driver for Cosmos DB connects Cosmos DB data to Mule applications enabling read , write, update, and delete functionality with familiar SQL queries. The JDBC Driver allows users to easily create Mule applications to backup, transform, report, and analyze Cosmos DB data.

This article demonstrates how to use the CData JDBC Driver for Cosmos DB inside of a Mule project to create a Web interface for Cosmos DB data. The application created allows you to request Cosmos DB data using an HTTP request and have the results returned as JSON. The exact same procedure outlined below can be used with any CData JDBC Driver to create a Web interface for the hundreds of available data sources.

1. Create a new Mule Project in Anypoint Studio.
2. Add an HTTP Connector to the Message Flow.
3. Configure the address for the HTTP Connector. 👁 Add and Configure the HTTP Connector
   
4. Add a Database Select Connector to the same flow, after the HTTP Connector.
5. Create a new Connection (or edit an existing one) and configure the properties.
   • Set Connection to "Generic Connection"
   • Select the CData JDBC Driver JAR file in the Required Libraries section (e.g. cdata.jdbc.cosmosdb.jar). 👁 Adding the JAR file (Salesforce is shown).
     
   • Set the URL to the connection string for Cosmos DB

     To obtain the connection string needed to connect to a Cosmos DB account using the SQL API, log in to the Azure Portal, select Azure Cosmos DB, and select your account. In the Settings section, click Connection String and set the following values:

     • AccountEndpoint: The Cosmos DB account URL from the Keys blade of the Cosmos DB account
     • AccountKey: In the Azure portal, navigate to the Cosmos DB service and select your Azure Cosmos DB account. From the resource menu, go to the Keys page. Find the PRIMARY KEY value and set AccountKey to this value.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     		java -jar cdata.jdbc.cosmosdb.jar
     		

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

   • Set the Driver class name to cdata.jdbc.cosmosdb.CosmosDBDriver. 👁 A configured Database Connection (Salesforce is shown).
     
   • Click Test Connection.
6. Set the SQL Query Text to a SQL query to request Cosmos DB data. For example:

   SELECT City, CompanyName FROM Customers

   👁 Configure the Select object (Salesforce is Shown)
   
7. Add a Transform Message Component to the flow.
8. Set the Output script to the following to convert the payload to JSON:

   %dw 2.0
   output application/json
   ---
   payload
    

   👁 Add the Transform Message Component to the Flow
   
9. To view your Cosmos DB data, navigate to the address you configured for the HTTP Connector (localhost:8081 by default): http://localhost:8081. The Cosmos DB data is available as JSON in your Web browser and any other tools capable of consuming JSON endpoints.

At this point, you have a simple Web interface for working with Cosmos DB data (as JSON data) in custom apps and a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools. Download a free, 30 day trial of the JDBC Driver for Cosmos DB and see the CData difference in your Mule Applications today.