Access Live REST Data in Coginiti Pro

Coginiti Pro is a single tool for all your SQL data and analytics needs, designed specifically for data engineers, analysts, and data scientists. When paired with the CData JDBC Driver for REST, Coginiti Pro can access and query live REST data. This article describes how to connect to and query REST data from Coginiti Pro.

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

Gather Connection Properties and Build a Connection String

Download the CData JDBC Driver for REST installer, unzip the package, and run the JAR file to install the driver. Then gather the required connection properties.

See the Getting Started chapter in the data provider documentation to authenticate to your data source: The data provider models REST APIs as bidirectional database tables and XML/JSON files as read-only views (local files, files stored on popular cloud services, and FTP servers). The major authentication schemes are supported, including HTTP Basic, Digest, NTLM, OAuth, and FTP. See the Getting Started chapter in the data provider documentation for authentication guides.

After setting the and providing any authentication values, set to "XML" or "JSON" and set to more closely match the data representation to the structure of your data.

The property is the controlling property over how your data is represented into tables and toggles the following basic configurations.

• Document (default): Model a top-level, document view of your REST data. The data provider returns nested elements as aggregates of data.
• FlattenedDocuments: Implicitly join nested documents and their parents into a single table.
• Relational: Return individual, related tables from hierarchical data. The tables contain a primary key and a foreign key that links to the parent document.

See the Modeling REST Data chapter for more information on configuring the relational representation. You will also find the sample data used in the following examples. The data includes entries for people, the cars they own, and various maintenance services performed on those cars.

NOTE: To use the JDBC driver in Coginiti Pro, you may need a license (full or trial) and a Runtime Key (RTK). For more information on obtaining this license (or a trial), contact our sales team.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

java -jar cdata.jdbc.rest.jar

Fill in the connection properties (including the RTK) and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

Create a JDBC Data Source for REST Data

1. Open Coginiti Pro and in the File menu, select "Edit Drivers."
2. In the newly opened wizard, click "Add" and select "Generic." 👁 Adding a Generic JDBC Driver.
   

3. In the "JDBC Drivers" wizard, set the driver properties (below) and click "Create Driver."

   • Set JDBC Driver Name to a useful name, like CData JDBC Driver for REST.
   • Click "Add Files" to add the JAR file from the "lib" folder in the installation directory (e.g. cdata.jdbc.rest.jar)
   • Select the Class Name: cdata.jdbc.rest.RESTDriver.
   👁 Creating a new Generic data source (Salesforce is shown).
   

Create a Connection using the CData JDBC Driver for REST

1. In the File menu, click "Edit Connections."
2. In the newly opened wizard, click "Add" and select "Generic." 👁 Adding a Generic JDBC Connection.
   
3. In the "Connections" wizard, set the connection properties.
   • Set Connection name to an identifying name.
   • Set Database JDBC driver to the Driver you configured earlier.
   • Set JDBC URL to the JDBC URL configured using the built-in connection string designer (e.g. jdbc:rest:DataModel=Relational;URI=C:/people.xml;Format=XML;
   👁 Creating a connection (Salesforce is shown).
   
4. Click "Test" to ensure the connection is configured properly. Click "Save."

Query REST Using SQL

1. Open the Connections tab by clicking on database icon: .
2. Click the plus sign () to add a new query tab.

3. Once the query console is open, write the SQL script you wish to execute and click "Run at Cursor".

   NOTE: You can use the explorer on the left to determine table/view names and column names.

   Using the explorer

   1. In the "Select connection" field, select the connection you wish to query.
   2. Expand your newly created connection, expand the "CData" catalog, and expand the REST catalog.
   3. Expand "Tables" or "Views" to find the entity you wish to query.
   4. Expand your selected entity to explore the fields (columns).
   👁 Querying data (Salesforce is shown).
   

Free Trial & More Information

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for REST and start working with your live REST data in Coginiti Pro. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.