Build a PostgreSQL Interface for Phoenix Data using the CData JDBC Driver

There are a vast number of PostgreSQL clients available on the Internet. From standard Drivers to BI and Analytics tools, PostgreSQL is a popular interface for data access. Using our JDBC Drivers, you can now create PostgreSQL entry-points that you can connect to from any standard client.

To access Phoenix data as a PostgreSQL database, use the CData JDBC Driver for Phoenix and a JDBC foreign data wrapper (FDW). In this article, we compile the FDW, install it, and query Phoenix data from PostgreSQL Server.

Connect to Phoenix Data as a JDBC Data Source

To connect to Phoenix as a JDBC data source, you will need the following:

• Driver JAR path: The JAR is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.

• Driver class:

  cdata.jdbc.apachephoenix.ApachePhoenixDriver
  

• JDBC URL: The URL must start with "jdbc:apachephoenix:" and can include any of the connection properties in name-value pairs separated with semicolons.

  Connect to Apache Phoenix via the Phoenix Query Server. Set the Server and Port (if different from the default port) properties to connect to Apache Phoenix. The Server property will typically be the host name or IP address of the server hosting Apache Phoenix.

  Authenticating to Apache Phoenix

  By default, no authentication will be used (plain). If authentication is configured for your server, set AuthScheme to NEGOTIATE and set the User and Password properties (if necessary) to authenticate through Kerberos.

  Built-in Connection String Designer

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

  java -jar cdata.jdbc.apachephoenix.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 JDBC URL is below:

  jdbc:apachephoenix:Server=localhost;Port=8765;
  

Build the JDBC Foreign Data Wrapper

The Foreign Data Wrapper can be installed as an extension to PostgreSQL, without recompiling PostgreSQL. The jdbc2_fdw extension is used as an example (downloadable here).

1. Add a symlink from the shared object for your version of the JRE to /usr/lib/libjvm.so. For example:

   ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server/libjvm.so /usr/lib/libjvm.so
   

2. Start the build:

   make install USE_PGXS=1
   

Query Phoenix Data as a PostgreSQL Database

After you have installed the extension, follow the steps below to start executing queries to Phoenix data:

1. Log into your database.
2. Load the extension for the database:

   CREATE EXTENSION jdbc2_fdw;
   

3. Create a server object for Phoenix:

   CREATE SERVER ApachePhoenix 
   FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER jdbc2_fdw OPTIONS (
   drivername 'cdata.jdbc.apachephoenix.ApachePhoenixDriver',
   url 'jdbc:apachephoenix:Server=localhost;Port=8765;',
   querytimeout '15',
   jarfile '/home/MyUser/CData/CData\ JDBC\ Driver\ for\ Salesforce MyDriverEdition/lib/cdata.jdbc.apachephoenix.jar'); 
   

4. Create a user mapping for the username and password of a user known to the MySQL daemon.

   CREATE USER MAPPING for postgres SERVER ApachePhoenix OPTIONS (
   username 'admin', 
   password 'test');
   

5. Create a foreign table in your local database:

   postgres=# CREATE FOREIGN TABLE mytable (
   mytable_id text,
   mytable_Id text,
   mytable_Column1 numeric) 
   SERVER ApachePhoenix OPTIONS (
   table_name 'mytable');
   

You can now execute SELECT commands to Phoenix:

postgres=# SELECT * FROM mytable;