Integrate with SQL Server Data in JReport Designer

Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism

Create charts and reports based on SQL Server data in JReport Designer.

The CData JDBC Driver for SQL Server data enables access to live data from dashboards and reports as if SQL Server were a relational database, allowing you to query SQL Server data using familiar SQL queries. This article shows how to connect to SQL Server data as a JDBC data source and create reports based on SQL Server data in JReport Designer.

Connect to SQL Server Data

Edit C:\JReport\Designer\bin\setenv.bat to add the location of the JAR file to the ADDCLASSPATH variable:

...
set ADDCLASSPATH=%JAVAHOME%\lib\tools.jar;C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for SQL Server 2016\lib\cdata.jdbc.sql.jar;
...

Create a new data source by clicking File New Data Source.
In the resulting dialog, create a name for the data source (CData JDBC Driver for SQL Server), select JDBC, and click OK.
In the Get JDBC Connection Information dialog you will configure your connection to the JDBC driver:
- Driver: Be sure that the Driver box is checked and fill in the name of the class for the driver:
```
cdata.jdbc.sql.SQLDriver
```
- URL: Enter the JDBC URL. This starts with jdbc:sql: and is followed by a semicolon-separated list of connection properties.
  Connecting to Microsoft SQL Server
  
  Connect to Microsoft SQL Server using the following properties:
  - Server: The name of the server running SQL Server.
  - User: The username provided for authentication with SQL Server.
  - Password: The password associated with the authenticating user.
  - Database: The name of the SQL Server database.
  Connecting to Azure SQL Server and Azure Data Warehouse
  
  You can authenticate to Azure SQL Server or Azure Data Warehouse by setting the following connection properties:
  - Server: The server running Azure. You can find this by logging into the Azure portal and navigating to "SQL databases" (or "SQL data warehouses") -> "Select your database" -> "Overview" -> "Server name."
  - User: The name of the user authenticating to Azure.
  - Password: The password associated with the authenticating user.
  - Database: The name of the database, as seen in the Azure portal on the SQL databases (or SQL warehouses) page.
  SSH Connectivity for SQL Server
  
  You can use SSH (Secure Shell) to authenticate with SQL Server, whether the instance is hosted on-premises or in supported cloud environments. SSH authentication ensures that access is encrypted (as compared to direct network connections).
  
  SSH Connections to SQL Server in Password Auth Mode
  
  To connect to SQL Server via SSH in Password Auth mode, set the following connection properties:
  - User: SQL Server User name
  - Password: SQL Server Password
  - Database: SQL Server database name
  - Server: SQL Server Server name
  - Port: SQL Server port number like 3306
  - UserSSH: "true"
  - SSHAuthMode: "Password"
  - SSHPort: SSH Port number
  - SSHServer: SSH Server name
  - SSHUser: SSH User name
  - SSHPassword: SSH Password
  SSH Connections to SQL Server in Public Key Auth Mode
  
  To connect to SQL Server via SSH in Password Auth mode, set the following connection properties:
  - User: SQL Server User name
  - Password: SQL Server Password
  - Database: SQL Server database name
  - Server: SQL Server Server name
  - Port: SQL Server port number like 3306
  - UserSSH: "true"
  - SSHAuthMode: "Public_Key"
  - SSHPort: SSH Port number
  - SSHServer: SSH Server name
  - SSHUser: SSH User name
  - SSHClientCret: the path for the public key certificate file
  Built-in Connection String Designer
  
  For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the SQL Server JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.
```
java -jar cdata.jdbc.sql.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.
  
  Below is a typical JDBC URL:
```
jdbc:sql:User=myUser;Password=myPassword;Database=NorthWind;Server=myServer;Port=1433;
```
- User: The username to authenticate with; typically left blank.
- Password: The password to authenticate with; typically left blank.
👁 Configuring the connection to the JDBC Driver (Salesforce is shown.)
In the Add Table dialog, select the tables you wish to include in your report (or in future reports using this data source) and click Add.
👁 Adding Tables. (Salesforce is shown.)

Click Done once the dialog has completed loading the tables.
In the Catalog Browser, you can create the queries that you will use to populate your reports. You can do this now, or after you create your report. In either case, expand () the data source (CData JDBC Driver for SQL Server), right-click on Queries, and select Add Query. 👁 Adding a query for data to be used in the report. (Salesforce is shown.)
In the Add Table/View/Query dialog, expand () the JDBC URL and Tables and select the table(s) you wish to use in the query and click OK. 👁 Selecting a table for the query. (Salesforce is shown.)
In the Query Editor dialog, you can select the columns you wish to include or simply click the SQL button and manually input your own query. For example:
```
SELECT ShipName, Freight FROM Orders
```
👁 Editing the query. (Salesforce is shown.)

With the query built, click OK to close the Query Editor dialog. At this point you are ready to add SQL Server data to a new or existing report.

NOTE: Now that the query is built, you can create a Business View based on the query. With a Business View, you can create Web reports or library components based on the query. For more information on this, refer to the JReport tutorials.