Build Amazon Athena-Connected Web Apps in Servoy

Servoy is a rapid application development and deployment platform. When paired with the CData JDBC Driver for Amazon Athena, users can build Amazon Athena-connected apps that work with live Amazon Athena data. This article describes how to connect to Amazon Athena from Servoy and build a simple web app to display and search Amazon Athena data.

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

Connect to Amazon Athena in Servoy Developer

To build Amazon Athena-connected apps, you need to first create a data provider in Servoy Developer using the CData JDBC Driver for Amazon Athena.

1. Install the JDBC Driver.
2. Copy the JDBC Driver JAR file. (cdata.jdbc.amazonathena.jar) to the /application_server/drivers/ directory in the installation directory for Servoy.
3. Open Servoy Developer.
4. In the Solution Explorer, right-click Database Server (under Resources) and choose "Connect to existing database" -> "empty."
   1. Name the server.
   2. Click to show the advanced server settings.

      • Set the URL, for example: jdbc:amazonathena:AccessKey='a123';SecretKey='s123';Region='IRELAND';Database='sampledb';S3StagingDirectory='s3://bucket/staging/';

        Built-In Connection String Designer

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

        java -jar cdata.jdbc.amazonathena.jar

        Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

        Authenticating to Amazon Athena

        To authorize Amazon Athena requests, provide the credentials for an administrator account or for an IAM user with custom permissions: Set AccessKey to the access key Id. Set SecretKey to the secret access key.

        Note: Though you can connect as the AWS account administrator, it is recommended to use IAM user credentials to access AWS services.

        Obtaining the Access Key

        To obtain the credentials for an IAM user, follow the steps below:

        1. Sign into the IAM console.
        2. In the navigation pane, select Users.
        3. To create or manage the access keys for a user, select the user and then select the Security Credentials tab.

        To obtain the credentials for your AWS root account, follow the steps below:

        1. Sign into the AWS Management console with the credentials for your root account.
        2. Select your account name or number and select My Security Credentials in the menu that is displayed.
        3. Click Continue to Security Credentials and expand the Access Keys section to manage or create root account access keys.

        Authenticating from an EC2 Instance

        If you are using the CData Data Provider for Amazon Athena 2018 from an EC2 Instance and have an IAM Role assigned to the instance, you can use the IAM Role to authenticate. To do so, set UseEC2Roles to true and leave AccessKey and SecretKey empty. The CData Data Provider for Amazon Athena 2018 will automatically obtain your IAM Role credentials and authenticate with them.

        Authenticating as an AWS Role

        In many situations it may be preferable to use an IAM role for authentication instead of the direct security credentials of an AWS root user. An AWS role may be used instead by specifying the RoleARN. This will cause the CData Data Provider for Amazon Athena 2018 to attempt to retrieve credentials for the specified role. If you are connecting to AWS (instead of already being connected such as on an EC2 instance), you must additionally specify the AccessKey and SecretKey of an IAM user to assume the role for. Roles may not be used when specifying the AccessKey and SecretKey of an AWS root user.

        Authenticating with MFA

        For users and roles that require Multi-factor Authentication, specify the MFASerialNumber and MFAToken connection properties. This will cause the CData Data Provider for Amazon Athena 2018 to submit the MFA credentials in a request to retrieve temporary authentication credentials. Note that the duration of the temporary credentials may be controlled via the TemporaryTokenDuration (default 3600 seconds).

        Connecting to Amazon Athena

        In addition to the AccessKey and SecretKey properties, specify Database, S3StagingDirectory and Region. Set Region to the region where your Amazon Athena data is hosted. Set S3StagingDirectory to a folder in S3 where you would like to store the results of queries.

        If Database is not set in the connection, the data provider connects to the default database set in Amazon Athena.

      • Select the Driver class you just copied, for example, cdata.jdbc.amazonathena.AmazonAthenaDriver

Build a Amazon Athena-Connected Web App

Once you have configured the connection to Amazon Athena in the Servoy Developer resources, you are ready to build apps with access to live Amazon Athena data.

Create a New Solution

1. In the Server Explorer, right-click "All solutions" and select "Create new solution."
2. Name the solution.
3. Select the checkbox to include the "search" module.
4. Click "Finish."

Create a New Form

Right-click "Forms" and select "Create new form."

1. Name the form.
2. Select a Datasource.
3. Set the type (e.g., Simple) and click "Finish."

Add a Data Grid to the Form

1. Drag a Data Grid component (from Servoy NG-Grids) onto the form.

2. Drag a column component onto the Data Grid and set the "dataprovider" property for each column component to a column from the Amazon Athena "table" (e.g., Name from the Customers table).

   Continue adding columns as desired.

Add Searching to the App

Note that the "svySearch" extension is required to add search functionality (included by default when you create a new solution). If you did not add the extension when you created the solution or you are modifying an existing solution, you can add the search module by right-clicking Modules (in the solution) and selecting "Add Module." Select "svySearch" and click "OK."

1. Drag a Text Field component onto the Form.
2. Right-click the Form and select "Open in Script Editor."
3. Create a new variable (JavaScript) to hold the search value:

   var searchText = '';
   

4. Back on the Form, in the Text Field properties:
   1. Set the "dataprovider" property to the Form variable you just created.
   2. Double-click to add a method for the onAction event.
   3. Click to create the method in "Form," name the method (e.g., onEnter), and click "Create private."
   4. Click "OK & Show."
5. Add the following JavaScript to the JavaScript file to use the Servoy framework to implement searching bound data based on the text in the Text Field:

   var search = scopes.svySearch.createSimpleSearch(foundset).setSearchText(searchText);
   search.setSearchAllColumns();
   search.loadRecords(foundset);
   

Save and Launch the App

Save the form and JavaScript file, then click Run -> Launch NGClient to start the web app.

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Amazon Athena and start building Amazon Athena-connected apps with Servoy. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.