CDATA Connectors

Overview

CDATA drivers provide connectivity to a huge range of data platforms, including databases and cloud-based applications. You can find more information here.

Install

Here are the steps to install a CDATA connector in Yellowfin.

In this example, Yellowfin is running on a Windows Server and we are using the CDATA Jira Connector. 

The two primary steps involved are as follows:

1. Download the CDATA driver and add it to your Yellowfin installation folder.
2. Create a new data source connection to your Jira environment within Yellowfin - after which you can create a View against the Jira data source and build reports in the normal way in Yellowfin.

Download CDATA Jira driver

1. Download the JDBC driver from the CDATA website.    

In our example we are using the Jira connector from the following URL: https://www.cdata.com/drivers/jira/download/jdbc/

There are three downloads for each driver:  

.exe

.zip

.dmg

Please note that if you are planning to use a trial license, only the .exe file will deploy the trial license file.       

Steps for the .exe and .zip files are included below.

2a. Run the .exe file.

This step will install the drivers to a specified location. Follow the prompts and specify the folder where you want to install the driver. 

Review the License Agreement as required.

If you have an existing Product Key you may choose to use it, otherwise a new Product Key is required. A new license key will replace the existing key.

Select the destination folder.

Select the available components to be installed.

Select a shortcut in the start menu folder.

Select Install to proceed with the installation.

Once the driver is installed, click Finish to complete the installation.

2b. Steps for .zip file

Once you have downloaded the zip file, you will need to unpack it to a directory on your computer.

As you can see, the .lic file is not included. To deploy the license file, follow these steps.

Open a command prompt and navigate to the lib folder of the directory where you unpacked the files.

Run the command:

java -jar cdata.jdbc.{product}.jar -license

You need to replace the {product} keyboard to be consistent with the .jar file in your directory.

For Jira, this would be:

java -jar cdata.jdbc.jira.jar -license

This process will create a cdata.jdbc.jira.lic file.

As you can see, the .lic file will now be included in the directory.

Steps to install JDBC driver to your Yellowfin installation

There are two methods to add the driver to your Yellowfin installation:

• Manual method
• Via Plugin Management in the yellowfin user interface

3a. Manual Method

Navigate to the folder where the driver is installed (default directory is CData\CData JDBC Driver for Jira 2022\lib) and copy the .lic file and ALL .jar files.

In this example, we would copy the following two files:

Paste the files into the Yellowfin/appserver/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/lib/   directory.

Edit the web.xml file (located under Yellowfin/appserver/webapps/ROOT/WEB-INF/) and add the following parameter to the driver list:

              cdata.jdbc.jira.JIRADriver

Ensure this is added after the following tags:  

             <param-name>JDBCDrivers</param-name><param-value>

3b. Via Plugin Management in the Yellowfin user interface

There are two steps to add the CDATA driver via the Yellowfin Plugin Management interface:

1. Add the .lic file into the .jar file
2. Add all .jar files via Plugin Management

Add the .lic file into the .jar file

Open a command prompt window in Administrator mode.

Navigate to the folder with your driver .jar files and .lic file.

Run the following command:

jar uf jar-file input-file(s

For example:

jar -uf cdata.jdbc.rest.jar cdata.jdbc.rest.lic

Your .lic file has now been added to the .jar file.

Add all .jar files via Plugin Management

Now we need to add the .jar files via plugin management

Navigate to Administration → Plugin Management in the Yellowfin console

Click Add and provide your driver with a name.

Drag the .jar file you added the .lic to in the previous steps.

IMPORTANT - If there are more .jar files in the lib folder you downloaded from CDATA, you need to add all of these before continuing.

This can be done by selecting +Add more and dragging the additional files in, one by one.

Now click Submit and the driver will now appear in the list on the Plugin Management screen.

Now restart the Yellowfin service.

Create a connection to your Jira environment in Yellowfin

1. Login to Yellowfin.
2. Create a new data source connection.

         3. Select “Database.”

          4.  Complete the “New Connection” window with the following:

For directions on connecting using other authentication types (including Okta), refer to this link.

         5. Select the drop-down arrow to the right of the “Create View” button and select “Test Connection” to ensure you’ve configured the connection correctly.

         6. Select Save and close to save the data source.

For more information on the Jira JDBC driver, visit the following link.

Using the Jira JDBC Driver

Now that you’ve created a connection to your Jira environment, the next step is to create a view to allow you to analyse the data.

1. Create a new view.

         2. Select the data source you created in the previous step.

         3. Select “Multiple tables,” and click on “Create view.”

         4. In the view builder,  you can explore the tables/views retrieved by the driver in the list on the left and drag them into the Entity Relationships pane to add them to your view.

For detailed instructions, check our Creating a View and Creating a Report pages.