Stream Kintone Data into Apache Kafka Topics

Apache Kafka is an open-source stream processing platform that is primarily used for building real-time data pipelines and event-driven applications. When paired with the CData JDBC Driver for Kintone, Kafka can work with live Kintone data. This article describes how to connect, access and stream Kintone data into Apache Kafka Topics and to start Confluent Control Center to help users secure, manage, and monitor the Kintone data received using Kafka infrastructure in the Confluent Platform.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData JDBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Kintone data. When you issue complex SQL queries to Kintone, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Kintone and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (often SQL functions and JOIN operations). Its built-in dynamic metadata querying allows you to work with and analyze Kintone data using native data types.

Prerequisites

Before connecting the CData JDBC Driver for streaming Kintone data in Apache Kafka Topics, install and configure the following in the client Linux-based system.

1. Confluent Platform for Apache Kafka
2. Confluent Hub CLI Installation
3. Self-Managed Kafka JDBC Source Connector for Confluent Platform

Define a New JDBC Connection to Kintone data

1. Download CData JDBC Driver for Kintone on a Linux-based system
2. Follow the given instructions to create a new directory extract all the driver contents into it:
   1. Create a new directory named Kintone

      		mkdir Kintone
      		

   2. Move the downloaded driver file (.zip) into this new directory

      		mv KintoneJDBCDriver.zip Kintone/
      		

   3. Unzip the CData KintoneJDBCDriver contents into this new directory

      		unzip KintoneJDBCDriver.zip
      		

3. Open the Kintone directory and navigate to the lib folder

   ls
   cd lib/
   

4. Copy the contents of the lib folder of the CData JDBC Driver for Kintone into the lib folder of Kafka Connect JDBC. Check the Kafka Connect JDBC folder contents to confirm that the cdata.jdbc.kintone.jar file is successfully copied into the lib folder

   cp -r /path/to/CData JDBC Driver for Kintone/lib/* /usr/share/confluent-hub-components/confluentinc-kafka-connect-jdbc/lib/
   cd /usr/share/confluent-hub-components/confluentinc-kafka-connect-jdbc/lib/
   

5. Install the CData Kintone JDBC driver license using the given command, followed by your Name and Email ID

   	java -jar cdata.jdbc.kintone.jar -l
   	

6. Enter the product key or "TRIAL" (In the scenarios of license expiry, please contact our CData Support team)
7. Start the Confluent local services using the command:

   	confluent local services start
   	

   This starts all the Confluent Services like Zookeeper, Kafka, Schema Registry, Kafka REST, Kafka CONNECT, ksqlDB and Control Center. You are now ready to use the CData JDBC driver for Kintone to stream messages using Kafka Connect Driver into Kafka Topics on ksqlDB.

   👁 Start the Confluent local services
   
8. Create the Kafka topics manually using a POST HTTP API Request:

    curl --location 'server_address:8083/connectors' 
   	--header 'Content-Type: application/json'
   	--data '{ 
   		"name": "jdbc_source_cdata_kintone_01", 
   		"config": { 
   			"connector.class": "io.confluent.connect.jdbc.JdbcSourceConnector", 
   			"connection.url": "jdbc:kintone:User=myuseraccount;Password=mypassword;Url=http://subdomain.domain.com;GuestSpaceId=myspaceid",
   		"topic.prefix": "kintone-01-", 
   		"mode": "bulk" 
   		} 
   	}'
   

   Let us understand the fields used in the HTTP POST body (shown above):

   • connector.class: Specifies the Java class of the Kafka Connect connector to be used.
   • connection.url: The JDBC connection URL to connect with Kintone data.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     		java -jar cdata.jdbc.kintone.jar
     		

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

     In addition to the authentication values, set the following parameters to connect to and retrieve data from Kintone:

     • Url: The URL of your account.
     • GuestSpaceId: Optional. Set this when using a guest space.

     Authenticating with Kintone

     Kintone supports the following authentication methods.

     Using Password Authentication

     You must set the following to authenticate:

     • User: The username of your account.
     • Password: The password of your account.

     Using Basic Authentication

     If the basic authentication security feature is set on the domain, supply the additional login credentials with BasicAuthUser and BasicAuthPassword. Basic authentication requires these credentials in addition to User and Password.

     Using Client SSL

     Instead of basic authentication, you can specify a client certificate to authenticate. Set SSLClientCert, SSLClientCertType, SSLClientCertSubject, and SSLClientCertPassword. Additionally, set User and Password to your login credentials.

     👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)
     
   • topic.prefix: A prefix that will be added to the Kafka topics created by the connector. It's set to "kintone-01-".
   • mode: Specifies the mode in which the connector operates. In this case, it's set to "bulk", which suggests that the connector is configured to perform bulk data transfer.

   This request adds all the tables/contents from Kintone as Kafka Topics.

   Note: The IP Address (server) to POST the request (shown above) is the Linux Network IP Address.

9. Run ksqlDB and list the topics. Use the commands:

   ksql
   list topics;
   

   👁 List the Kafka Topics (BigCommerce is shown)
   
10. To view the data inside the topics, type the SQL Statement:

    PRINT topic FROM BEGINNING;
    

Connecting with the Confluent Control Center

To access the Confluent Control Center user interface, ensure to run the "confluent local services" as described in the above section and type http://<server address>:9021/clusters/ on your local browser.

Get Started Today

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Kintone and start streaming Kintone data into Apache Kafka. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.