Integrate with Cosmos DB Data in JReport Designer

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

Connect to Cosmos DB Data

1. 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 Cosmos DB 2016\lib\cdata.jdbc.cosmosdb.jar;
   ...
   

2. Create a new data source by clicking File New Data Source.
3. In the resulting dialog, create a name for the data source (CData JDBC Driver for Cosmos DB), select JDBC, and click OK.
4. 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.cosmosdb.CosmosDBDriver
   • URL: Enter the JDBC URL. This starts with jdbc:cosmosdb: and is followed by a semicolon-separated list of connection properties.

     To obtain the connection string needed to connect to a Cosmos DB account using the SQL API, log in to the Azure Portal, select Azure Cosmos DB, and select your account. In the Settings section, click Connection String and set the following values:

     • AccountEndpoint: The Cosmos DB account URL from the Keys blade of the Cosmos DB account
     • AccountKey: In the Azure portal, navigate to the Cosmos DB service and select your Azure Cosmos DB account. From the resource menu, go to the Keys page. Find the PRIMARY KEY value and set AccountKey to this value.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.cosmosdb.jar

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

     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:cosmosdb:AccountEndpoint=myAccountEndpoint;AccountKey=myAccountKey;
   • User: The username to authenticate with; typically left blank.
   • Password: The password to authenticate with; typically left blank.

5. 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.

   Click Done once the dialog has completed loading the tables.

6. 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 Cosmos DB), right-click on Queries, and select Add Query.
7. 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.
8. 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 City, CompanyName FROM Customers
   

   With the query built, click OK to close the Query Editor dialog. At this point you are ready to add Cosmos DB 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.

Add Cosmos DB Data to a Report

You are now ready to create a report with Cosmos DB data.

1. Create a new report (File New Page Report) or open the Chart Wizard for an existing report.
2. Select the Query (or create a new one; see above).
3. Assign a Category and Value for the chart from the columns in your Query and click Finish.
4. Click the View tab for your report to see the chart.