Integrate Discourse Data in Your Informatica Cloud Instance

Informatica Cloud allows you to perform extract, transform, and load (ETL) tasks in the cloud. With the Cloud Secure Agent and the CData API Driver for JDBC, you get live access to Discourse data, directly within Informatica Cloud. In this article, we will walk through downloading and registering the Cloud Secure Agent, connecting to Discourse through the JDBC Driver and generating a mapping that can be used in any Informatica Cloud process.

Informatica Cloud Secure Agent

To work with the Discourse data through the JDBC Driver, install the Cloud Secure Agent.

1. Navigate to the Administrator page in Informatica Cloud 👁 Image
   
2. Select the Runtime Environments tab
3. Click "Download Secure Agent" 👁 Image
   
4. Make note of the Install Token 👁 Image
   
5. Run the installer on the client machine and register the Cloud Secure Agent with your username and install token 👁 Image
   

NOTE: It may take some time for all of the Cloud Secure Agent services to get up and running.

Connecting to the Discourse JDBC Driver

With the Cloud Secure Agent installed and running, you are ready to connect to Discourse through the JDBC Driver.

Adding the JDBC Driver to the Secure Agent Machine

1. Navigate to the following directory on the Secure Agent machine:

   %Secure Agent installation directory%/ext/connectors/thirdparty/

2. Create a folder and add the driver JAR file (cdata.jdbc.api.jar) based on the type of mapping that you want to configure.

   For mappings, create the following folder and add the driver JAR file:

   informatica.jdbc_v2/common

   For mappings in advanced mode, also create the following folder and add the driver JAR file:

   informatica.jdbc_v2/spark

3. Restart the Secure Agent.

Connecting to Discourse in Informatica Cloud

After installing the driver JAR file, you are ready to configure your connection to Discourse in Informatica Cloud. Start by clicking the Connections tab and clicking New Connection. Fill in the following properties for the connection:

• Connection Name: Name your connection (i.e.: CData Discourse Connection)
• Type: Select "JDBC_V2"
• Runtime Environment: Select the runtime environment where you installed the Secure Agent
• JDBC Driver Class Name: The name of the JDBC driver class: cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver
• JDBC Connection URL: Set this to the JDBC URL for Discourse. Your URL will look similar to the following:
  
  

  jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\Discourse.apip;ProfileSettings='Domain=forum.example.com;APIKey=your_api_key;Username=your_username;'AuthScheme=APIKey;

  The Discourse API uses API Key authentication.

  Using API Key Authentication

  Discourse requires API Key and Username for authentication. API Keys are generated in the Discourse Admin panel under the API section. You can create user-specific API keys or all-users API keys. Once you have obtained the API Key, set it along with the Domain and Username in the ProfileSettings connection property.

  Example Connection string

  Profile=C:\profiles\Discourse.apip;ProfileSettings='Domain=forum.example.com;APIKey=your_api_key;Username=your_username;'AuthScheme=APIKey;
  

  Built-In Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.api.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 (Google Sheets is shown.)
  

👁 Configuring the Connection (Google Sheets is shown.

Create a Mapping for Discourse Data

With the connection to Discourse configured, we can now access Discourse data in any Informatica process. The steps below walk through creating a mapping for Discourse to another data target.

1. Navigate to the Data Integration page 👁 Image
   
2. Click New.. and select Mapping from the Mappings tab 👁 Image
   
3. Click the Source Object and in the Source tab, select the Connection and set the Source Type 👁 Selecting the Source Connection and Source Type
   
4. Click "Select" to choose the table to map 👁 Selecting the Source Object
   
5. In the Fields tab, select the fields from the Discourse table to map 👁 Selecting Source Fields to map
   
6. Click the Target object and configure the Target source, table and fields. In the Field Mapping tab, map the source fields to the target fields. 👁 Selecting the Target Field Mappings
   

With the mapping configured, you are ready to start integrating live Discourse data with any of the supported connections in Informatica Cloud. Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData API Driver for JDBC and start working with your live Discourse data in Informatica Cloud today.