Create Informatica Mappings From/To a JDBC Data Source for LDAP

Informatica provides a powerful, elegant means of transporting and transforming your data. By utilizing the CData JDBC Driver for LDAP, you are gaining access to a driver based on industry-proven standards that integrates seamlessly with Informatica's powerful data transportation and manipulation features. This tutorial shows how to transfer and browse LDAP objects in Informatica PowerCenter.

Deploy the Driver

To deploy the driver to the Informatica PowerCenter server, copy the CData JAR and .lic file, located in the lib subfolder in the installation directory, to the following folder: Informatica-installation-directory\services\shared\jars\thirdparty.

To work with LDAP objects in the Developer tool, you will need to copy the CData JAR and .lic file, located in the lib subfolder in the installation directory, into the following folders:

• Informatica-installation-directory\client\externaljdbcjars
• Informatica-installation-directory\externaljdbcjars

Create the JDBC Connection

Follow the steps below to connect from Informatica Developer:

1. In the Connection Explorer pane, right-click your domain and click Create a Connection.
2. In the New Database Connection wizard that is displayed, enter a name and Id for the connection and in the Type menu select JDBC.
3. In the JDBC Driver Class Name property, enter:

   cdata.jdbc.ldap.LDAPDriver

4. In the Connection String property, enter the JDBC URL, using the connection properties for LDAP.

   To establish a connection, the following properties under the Authentication section must be provided:

   • Valid User and Password credentials (e.g., Domain\BobF or cn=Bob F,ou=Employees,dc=Domain).
   • Server information, including the IP or host name of the Server, as well as the Port.

   • BaseDN: This will limit the scope of LDAP searches to the height of the distinguished name provided.

     Note: Specifying a narrow BaseDN may greatly increase performance; for example, cn=users,dc=domain will only return results contained within cn=users and its children.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.ldap.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.)
   

   A typical connection string is below:

   jdbc:ldap:User=Domain\BobF;Password=bob123456;Server=10.0.1.1;Port=389;

Browse LDAP Tables

After you have added the driver JAR to the classpath and created a JDBC connection, you can now access LDAP entities in Informatica. Follow the steps below to connect to LDAP and browse LDAP tables:

1. Connect to your repository.
2. In the Connection Explorer, right-click the connection and click Connect.
3. Clear the Show Default Schema Only option. 👁 The driver models LDAP entities as relational tables. (Salesforce is shown.)
   

You can now browse LDAP tables in the Data Viewer: Right-click the node for the table and then click Open. On the Data Viewer view, click Run.

Create LDAP Data Objects

Follow the steps below to add LDAP tables to your project:

1. Select tables in LDAP, then right-click a table in LDAP, and click Add to Project.
2. In the resulting dialog, select the option to create a data object for each resource.
3. In the Select Location dialog, select your project.

   Create a Mapping

   Follow the steps below to add the LDAP source to a mapping:

   1. In the Object Explorer, right-click your project and then click New -> Mapping.
   2. Expand the node for the LDAP connection and then drag the data object for the table onto the editor.
   3. In the dialog that appears, select the Read option.
   👁 The source LDAP table in the mapping. (Salesforce is shown.)
   

   Follow the steps below to map LDAP columns to a flat file:

   1. In the Object Explorer, right-click your project and then click New -> Data Object.
   2. Select Flat File Data Object -> Create as Empty -> Fixed Width.
   3. In the properties for the LDAP object, select the rows you want, right-click, and then click copy. Paste the rows into the flat file properties.
   4. Drag the flat file data object onto the mapping. In the dialog that appears, select the Write option.
   5. Click and drag to connect columns.

   To transfer LDAP objects, right-click in the workspace and then click Run Mapping.

   👁 The completed mapping. (Salesforce is shown.)