Stream FreshBooks Data into Apache Kafka Topics

Apache Kafka is an open-source stream processing platform that is primarily used for building real-time data pipelines and event-driven applications. When paired with the CData JDBC Driver for FreshBooks, Kafka can work with live FreshBooks data. This article describes how to connect, access and stream FreshBooks data into Apache Kafka Topics and to start Confluent Control Center to help users secure, manage, and monitor the FreshBooks data received using Kafka infrastructure in the Confluent Platform.

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

Prerequisites

Before connecting the CData JDBC Driver for streaming FreshBooks data in Apache Kafka Topics, install and configure the following in the client Linux-based system.

1. Confluent Platform for Apache Kafka
2. Confluent Hub CLI Installation
3. Self-Managed Kafka JDBC Source Connector for Confluent Platform

Define a New JDBC Connection to FreshBooks data

1. Download CData JDBC Driver for FreshBooks on a Linux-based system
2. Follow the given instructions to create a new directory extract all the driver contents into it:
   1. Create a new directory named FreshBooks mkdir FreshBooks
   2. Move the downloaded driver file (.zip) into this new directory mv FreshBooksJDBCDriver.zip FreshBooks/
   3. Unzip the CData FreshBooksJDBCDriver contents into this new directory unzip FreshBooksJDBCDriver.zip
3. Open the FreshBooks directory and navigate to the lib folder ls cd lib/
4. Copy the contents of the lib folder of FreshBooks into the lib folder of Kafka Connect JDBC. Check the Kafka Connect JDBC folder contents to confirm that the cdata.jdbc.freshbooks.jar file is successfully copied into the lib folder cp * ../../confluent-7.5.0/share/confluent-hub-components/confluentinc-kafka-connect-jdbc/lib/ cd ../../confluent-7.5.0/share/confluent-hub-components/confluentinc-kafka-connect-jdbc/lib/
5. Install the CData FreshBooks JDBC driver license using the given command, followed by your Name and Email ID java -jar cdata.jdbc.freshbooks.jar -l
6. Enter the product key or "TRIAL" (In the scenarios of license expiry, please contact our CData Support team)
7. Start the Confluent local services using the command: confluent local services start

   This starts all the Confluent Services like Zookeeper, Kafka, Schema Registry, Kafka REST, Kafka CONNECT, ksqlDB and Control Center. You are now ready to use the CData JDBC driver for FreshBooks to stream messages using Kafka Connect Driver into Kafka Topics on ksqlDB.

8. Create the Kafka topics manually using a POST HTTP API Request: curl --location 'server_address:8083/connectors' --header 'Content-Type: application/json' --data '{ "name": "jdbc_source_cdata_freshbooks_01", "config": { "connector.class": "io.confluent.connect.jdbc.JdbcSourceConnector", "connection.url": "jdbc:freshbooks:CompanyName=CData;Token=token;", "topic.prefix": "freshbooks-01-", "mode": "bulk" } }'

   Let us understand the fields used in the HTTP POST body (shown above):

   • connector.class: Specifies the Java class of the Kafka Connect connector to be used.
   • connection.url: The JDBC connection URL to connect with FreshBooks data.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.freshbooks.jar

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

     To connect to FreshBooks, you can set the CompanyName and Token connection properties. Alternatively, you can use the OAuth authentication standard.

     OAuth can be used to enable other users to access their own company data. To authenticate using OAuth, you will need to obtain the OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret by registering an app. See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.

   • topic.prefix: A prefix that will be added to the Kafka topics created by the connector. It's set to "freshbooks-01-".
   • mode: Specifies the mode in which the connector operates. In this case, it's set to "bulk", which suggests that the connector is configured to perform bulk data transfer.

   This request adds all the tables/contents from FreshBooks as Kafka Topics.

   Note: The IP Address (server) to POST the request (shown above) is the Linux Network IP Address.

9. Run ksqlDB and list the topics. Use the commands: ksql list topics;
10. To view the data inside the topics, type the SQL Statement: PRINT topic FROM BEGINNING;

Connecting with the Confluent Control Center

To access the Confluent Control Center user interface, ensure to run the "confluent local services" as described in the above section and type http://<server address>:9021/clusters/ on your local browser.

Get Started Today

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for FreshBooks and start streaming FreshBooks data into Apache Kafka. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.