Use the CData JDBC Driver for RabbitMQ in MicroStrategy

MicroStrategy is an analytics and mobility platform that enables data-driven innovation. When you pair MicroStrategy with the CData JDBC Driver for RabbitMQ, you gain database-like access to live RabbitMQ data from MicroStrategy, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. In this article, we walk through creating a database instance for RabbitMQ in MicroStrategy Developer and create a Warehouse Catalog for the RabbitMQ data.

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

Connect to RabbitMQ in MicroStrategy Developer

You can connect to RabbitMQ in MicroStrategy Developer by adding a database instance based on the CData JDBC Driver for RabbitMQ.^* Before you begin, you will need to install the JDBC Driver for RabbitMQ on the machine hosting the MicroStrategy Intelligence Server that your instance of MicroStrategy Developer is connected to.

1. Open MicroStrategy Developer and select a Project Source.
2. Navigate to Administration -> Configuration Managers -> Database Instances and right-click to add a new instance. 👁 Create a new Database Instance
   
3. Name the instance, select Generic DBMS as the database connection type, and create a new database connection. 👁 Create a new database connection.
   
4. In the database connection wizard, name the connection and create a new Database Login name, setting the user and password for RabbitMQ. 👁 Create a new database login.
   
5. On the Advanced tab for the connection wizard, set the additional connection string parameters as follows.
   • Add the JDBC keyword to the connection string.
   • Set MSTR_JDBC_JAR_FOLDER to the path of the directory containing the JAR file for the JDBC driver. (C:\Program Files\CData JDBC Driver for RabbitMQ\lib\ on Windows.)
   • Set DRIVER to cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver, the driver class.
   • Set URL to the JDBC URL for the RabbitMQ driver, which contains the necessary connection properties.

     About RabbitMQ Management HTTP API

     RabbitMQ is an open-source message broker that supports multiple messaging protocols. The RabbitMQ Management HTTP API provides HTTP-based access to management and monitoring data for a RabbitMQ server. The API exposes information about virtual hosts, exchanges, queues, bindings, connections, channels, consumers, users, permissions, policies, and cluster-wide statistics.

     The Management plugin must be enabled on the RabbitMQ server for the HTTP API to be available. By default, the management interface listens on port 15672.

     Using Basic Authentication

     RabbitMQ Management HTTP API uses HTTP Basic authentication. You must supply the username and password of a RabbitMQ management user.

     To enable access to the management API:

     1. Ensure the RabbitMQ Management plugin is enabled on your server (rabbitmq-plugins enable rabbitmq_management).
     2. Use an existing management user or create one with the appropriate management tag (management, policymaker, monitoring, or administrator).
     3. Note the full base URL of your RabbitMQ Management HTTP API (e.g., http://localhost:15672).

     After configuring your RabbitMQ server, set the following connection properties to connect:

     • AuthScheme: Set this to Basic.
     • URL: Set this to the base URL of your RabbitMQ Management HTTP API (e.g., http://localhost:15672).
     • User: Set this to your RabbitMQ management username (e.g., guest).
     • Password: Set this to your RabbitMQ management password.

     Example connection string:

     Profile=C:\profiles\RabbitMQ.apip;AuthScheme=Basic;URL=http://localhost:15672;User=guest;Password=guest;
     

     Available Tables

     The RabbitMQ profile provides access to the following tables:

     • Overview - Cluster-wide statistics and information about the RabbitMQ node
     • Nodes - Information about individual nodes in the RabbitMQ cluster
     • NodeMemory - Detailed memory usage breakdown for a specific cluster node
     • Connections - List of all open AMQP connections to the broker
     • Channels - List of all open AMQP channels across all connections
     • Consumers - List of all consumers registered across all queues
     • Exchanges - List of exchanges declared across all virtual hosts
     • Queues - List of queues declared across all virtual hosts
     • Bindings - List of all bindings between exchanges and queues
     • VirtualHosts - List of virtual hosts configured on the broker
     • VhostPermissions - User permissions within a specific virtual host
     • Users - List of all RabbitMQ users
     • Permissions - Permission records for all users across all virtual hosts
     • TopicPermissions - Topic-level permission records for all users
     • Policies - List of policies applied to queues and exchanges in virtual hosts
     • OperatorPolicies - List of operator policies applied to queues in virtual hosts
     • Parameters - List of component parameters (e.g., federation, shovel) per virtual host
     • GlobalParameters - List of global parameters that apply across all virtual hosts
     • VhostLimits - Resource limits configured for specific virtual hosts
     • UserLimits - Resource limits configured for specific users
     • FeatureFlags - List of feature flags and their enabled/disabled state on the node
     • DeprecatedFeatures - List of deprecated features and their usage state
     • AuthAttempts - Authentication attempt statistics for the node
     • ClusterName - The name of the RabbitMQ cluster
     • WhoAmI - Information about the currently authenticated management user
     • ExchangeBindingsSource - Bindings for which a specific exchange is the source
     • ExchangeBindingsDestination - Bindings for which a specific exchange is the destination
     • QueueBindings - Bindings for a specific queue within a virtual host

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.api.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.

   Typical additional connection string properties follow:

   JDBC;MSTR_JDBC_JAR_FOLDER=PATH\TO\JAR\;DRIVER=cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver;URL={jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\\RabbitMQ.apip;AuthScheme=Basic;URL=http://localhost:15672;User=guest;Password=guest;};
   

   👁 Configuring the connection to RabbitMQ data using JDBC.
   
6. Ensure that you have not selected an ODBC data source (this will trigger MicroStrategy to use the additional connection string parameters to build the database instance) and click OK.
7. Click OK to close the database instance wizard.
8. In the Project Source, right-click the project and open the Project configuration.
9. Navigate to Database Instances, select the newly created database instance, and click OK. 👁 Adding the new database instance to the project.
   
10. Close MicroStrategy Developer and restart the connected MicroStrategy Intelligence Server to complete the database instance creation.

With the database instance configured, you will now be able to connect to RabbitMQ data from the Warehouse Catalog and Data Import.

Connect to RabbitMQ Data from the Warehouse Catalog

Once you have created a database instance based on the JDBC Driver for RabbitMQ, you can connect to data from the Warehouse Catalog.

1. Select your project and click Schema -> Warehouse Catalog. 👁 Creating the Warehouse Catalog
   
2. In the Read Settings for the Catalog, click Settings and set the queries to retrieve the schema:
   • To retrieve the list of tables, use the following query:

     SELECT 
      * 
     FROM 
      SYS_TABLES
      

   • To retrieve the list of columns for selected tables, use the following query:

     SELECT DISTINCT 
      CatalogName NAME_SPACE, 
      TableName TAB_NAME, 
      ColumnName COL_NAME, 
      DataTypeName DATA_TYPE, 
      Length DATA_LEN, 
      NumericPrecision DATA_PREC, 
      NumericScale DATA_SCALE 
     FROM 
      SYS_TABLECOLUMNS 
     WHERE 
      TableName IN (#TABLE_LIST#) 
     ORDER BY
      1,2,3
      

   👁 Custom metadata queries.
   
3. Select tables to be used in the project. 👁 Selecting tables to be used in the project.
   

Using the CData JDBC Driver for RabbitMQ in MicroStrategy, you can easily create robust visualizations and reports on RabbitMQ data. Read our other articles on connecting to RabbitMQ in MictroStrategy Web and connecting to RabbitMQ in MicroStrategy Desktop for more information.

Note: Connecting using a JDBC Driver requires a 3- or 4-Tier Architecture.