Visualize Kafka Data in Sisense

Sisense lets you join, analyze, and picture data to make more intelligent business decisions and craft effective strategies. The CData JDBC Driver for Apache Kafka makes it easy to integrate with Kafka data in Sisense. This article shows how to create an ElastiCube that connects to Kafka data and use the ElastiCube to visualize Kafka data in Sisense.

Configure the Connection to Kafka

Before creating the ElastiCube, note the installation location for the JAR file for the JDBC Driver (typically C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for Apache Kafka 20XX\lib) or copy the jar file (cdata.jdbc.apachekafka.ApacheKafka.jar) to a new folder in the Sisense JDBC driver directory (typically C:\ProgramData\Sisense\DataConnectors\jdbcdrivers).

1. In the Data page of the Sisense application, create a new ElastiCube (or open an existing one).
2. In the Model Editor, click "+ Data" to open the Add Data dialog box.
3. Click Generic JDBC to open the JDBC settings. 👁 Connecting via JDBC
   
4. Set the connection string property to the JDBC URL for Kafka, adding required properties.

   Set BootstrapServers and the Topic properties to specify the address of your Apache Kafka server, as well as the topic you would like to interact with.

   Authorization Mechanisms

   • SASL Plain: The User and Password properties should be specified. AuthScheme should be set to 'Plain'.
   • SASL SSL: The User and Password properties should be specified. AuthScheme should be set to 'Scram'. UseSSL should be set to true.
   • SSL: The SSLCert and SSLCertPassword properties should be specified. UseSSL should be set to true.
   • Kerberos: The User and Password properties should be specified. AuthScheme should be set to 'Kerberos'.

   You may be required to trust the server certificate. In such cases, specify the TrustStorePath and the TrustStorePassword if necessary.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.apachekafka.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.

   A typical example follows:

   jdbc:apachekafka:User=admin;Password=pass;BootStrapServers=https://localhost:9091;Topic=MyTopic;
   

5. Set the JDBC JARs folder property to the location of the CData JDBC Driver JAR file (see above).
6. Set the driver's class name to the class name for the JDBC Driver: cdata.jdbc.apachekafka.ApacheKafkaDriver
7. Leave the username and password properties blank.
8. Click Next. 👁 A configured connection in Sisense (HubSpot is shown).
   

Add Kafka Data to an ElastiCube

Once you are connected to Kafka, you can add tables and views to your ElastiCubes.

1. From the Tables list, select the tables and/or views you wish to work with.
2. (Optional) Click "+" to customize the data you want to import with SQL.
3. Click Done. 👁 Selected tables to add to the ElastiCube
   
4. Click Build to build the ElastiCube for analytics.

Visualize Kafka Data

With Kafka tables added to your ElastiCube, you can perform analytics on your Kafka data.

1. Navigate to the Analytics page of the Sisense application
2. Select a Dashboard (or create a new one)
3. Select your Data Source and click Create 👁 Selecting the newly created ElastiCube
   
4. Click "+ Select Data" and choose fields to add to your visualization. 👁 Visualizing data in Sisense (HubSpot is shown).
   

With the CData JDBC Driver for Apache Kafka, you can access Kafka data right in Sisense for powerful visualization and analytics. Download a free, 30-day trial and start working with Kafka data in Sisense today!