Analyze EnterpriseDB Data in R via JDBC

Access EnterpriseDB data with pure R script and standard SQL on any machine where R and Java can be installed. You can use the CData JDBC Driver for EnterpriseDB and the RJDBC package to work with remote EnterpriseDB data in R. By using the CData Driver, you are leveraging a driver written for industry-proven standards to access your data in the popular, open-source R language. This article shows how to use the driver to execute SQL queries to EnterpriseDB and visualize EnterpriseDB data by calling standard R functions.

Install R

You can match the driver's performance gains from multi-threading and managed code by running the multithreaded Microsoft R Open or by running open R linked with the BLAS/LAPACK libraries. This article uses Microsoft R Open 3.2.3, which is preconfigured to install packages from the Jan. 1, 2016 snapshot of the CRAN repository. This snapshot ensures reproducibility.

Load the RJDBC Package

To use the driver, download the RJDBC package. After installing the RJDBC package, the following line loads the package:

library(RJDBC)

Connect to EnterpriseDB as a JDBC Data Source

You will need the following information to connect to EnterpriseDB as a JDBC data source:

• Driver Class: Set this to cdata.jdbc.enterprisedb.EnterpriseDBDriver
• Classpath: Set this to the location of the driver JAR. By default this is the lib subfolder of the installation folder.

The DBI functions, such as dbConnect and dbSendQuery, provide a unified interface for writing data access code in R. Use the following line to initialize a DBI driver that can make JDBC requests to the CData JDBC Driver for EnterpriseDB:

driver <- JDBC(driverClass = "cdata.jdbc.enterprisedb.EnterpriseDBDriver", classPath = "MyInstallationDir\lib\cdata.jdbc.enterprisedb.jar", identifier.quote = "'") 

You can now use DBI functions to connect to EnterpriseDB and execute SQL queries. Initialize the JDBC connection with the dbConnect function.

The following connection properties are required in order to connect to data.

• Server: The host name or IP of the server hosting the EnterpriseDB database.
• Port: The port of the server hosting the EnterpriseDB database.

You can also optionally set the following:

• Database: The default database to connect to when connecting to the EnterpriseDB Server. If this is not set, the user's default database will be used.

Connect Using Standard Authentication

To authenticate using standard authentication, set the following:

• User: The user which will be used to authenticate with the EnterpriseDB server.
• Password: The password which will be used to authenticate with the EnterpriseDB server.

Connect Using SSL Authentication

You can leverage SSL authentication to connect to EnterpriseDB data via a secure session. Configure the following connection properties to connect to data:

• SSLClientCert: Set this to the name of the certificate store for the client certificate. Used in the case of 2-way SSL, where truststore and keystore are kept on both the client and server machines.
• SSLClientCertPassword: If a client certificate store is password-protected, set this value to the store's password.
• SSLClientCertSubject: The subject of the TLS/SSL client certificate. Used to locate the certificate in the store.
• SSLClientCertType: The certificate type of the client store.
• SSLServerCert: The certificate to be accepted from the server.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

java -jar cdata.jdbc.enterprisedb.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.)

Below is a sample dbConnect call, including a typical JDBC connection string:

conn <- dbConnect(driver,"jdbc:enterprisedb:User=postgres;Password=admin;Database=postgres;Server=127.0.0.1;Port=5444")

Schema Discovery

The driver models EnterpriseDB APIs as relational tables, views, and stored procedures. Use the following line to retrieve the list of tables:

dbListTables(conn)

Execute SQL Queries

You can use the dbGetQuery function to execute any SQL query supported by the EnterpriseDB API:

orders <- dbGetQuery(conn,"SELECT ShipName, ShipCity FROM Orders WHERE ShipCountry = 'USA'")

You can view the results in a data viewer window with the following command:

View(orders)

Plot EnterpriseDB Data

You can now analyze EnterpriseDB data with any of the data visualization packages available in the CRAN repository. You can create simple bar plots with the built-in bar plot function:

par(las=2,ps=10,mar=c(5,15,4,2))
barplot(orders$ShipCity, main="EnterpriseDB Orders", names.arg = orders$ShipName, horiz=TRUE)

👁 A basic bar plot. (Salesforce is shown.)