Integrate IBM Cloud Object Storage Data in the Pentaho Report Designer

The CData JDBC driver for IBM Cloud Object Storage data enables access to live data from dashboards and reports. This article shows how to connect to IBM Cloud Object Storage data as a JDBC data source and publish reports based on IBM Cloud Object Storage data in Pentaho.

Connect and Create a Report

1. Copy the JAR file of the driver, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory, to the \Report-Designer\lib\jdbc\ folder in the Pentaho directory.
2. Run the report-designer.bat file in the \Report-Designer\ folder to open the Report-Designer UI.

3. Create a new data source with the driver by clicking Data -> Add Data Source -> Advanced -> JDBC (Custom) and then creating a new IBM Cloud Object Storage connection. In the resulting dialog, configure the connection properties as shown below.

   • Custom Connection URL property: Enter the JDBC URL. This starts with jdbc:ibmcloudobjectstorage: and is followed by a semicolon-separated list of connection properties.

     Register a New Instance of Cloud Object Storage

     If you do not already have Cloud Object Storage in your IBM Cloud account, follow the procedure below to install an instance of SQL Query in your account:

     1. Log in to your IBM Cloud account.
     2. Navigate to the

     Connecting using OAuth Authentication

     There are certain connection properties you need to set before you can connect. You can obtain these as follows:

     API Key

     To connect with IBM Cloud Object Storage, you need an API Key. You can obtain this as follows:

     1. Log in to your IBM Cloud account.
     2. Navigate to the Platform API Keys page.
     3. On the middle-right corner click "Create an IBM Cloud API Key" to create a new API Key.
     4. In the pop-up window, specify the API Key name and click "Create". Note the API Key as you can never access it again from the dashboard.

     Cloud Object Storage CRN

     If you have multiple accounts, specify the CloudObjectStorageCRN explicitly. To find the appropriate value, you can:

     • Query the Services view. This will list your IBM Cloud Object Storage instances along with the CRN for each.
     • Locate the CRN directly in IBM Cloud. To do so, navigate to your IBM Cloud Dashboard. In the Resource List, Under Storage, select your Cloud Object Storage resource to get its CRN.

     Connecting to Data

     You can now set the following to connect to data:

     • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
     • ApiKey: Set this to your API key which was noted during setup.
     • CloudObjectStorageCRN (Optional): Set this to the cloud object storage CRN you want to work with. While the connector attempts to retrieve this automatically, specifying this explicitly is recommended if you have more than Cloud Object Storage account.

     When you connect, the connector completes the OAuth process.

     1. Extracts the access token and authenticates requests.
     2. Saves OAuth values in OAuthSettingsLocation to be persisted across connections.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.ibmcloudobjectstorage.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.

     Below is a typical JDBC URL:

     jdbc:ibmcloudobjectstorage:ApiKey=myApiKey;CloudObjectStorageCRN=MyInstanceCRN;Region=myRegion;OAuthClientId=MyOAuthClientId;OAuthClientSecret=myOAuthClientSecret;

   • Custom Driver Class Name: Enter cdata.jdbc.ibmcloudobjectstorage.IBMCloudObjectStorageDriver.
   • User Name: The username to authenticate with.
   • Password: The password to authenticate with.
   👁 Required connection properties defined in the JDBC URL. (Salesforce is shown.)
   

Add IBM Cloud Object Storage Data to a Report

You are now ready to create a report with IBM Cloud Object Storage data.

1. Add the IBM Cloud Object Storage source to your report: Click Data -> Add Data Source -> JDBC and select the data source.

2. Configure the query. This article uses the one below:

   SELECT Key, Etag FROM Objects WHERE Bucket = 'someBucket'

   👁 The query to retrieve data, specified in the JDBC data source configuration wizard. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
3. Drag a chart onto your report and double-click it to edit the chart. Run the report to display the chart. You can use the results of this query to create a simple chart for the Objects table.
4. Finally, run the report to see the chart.