How to connect to Sybase Data from Spring Boot

Connect to Sybase in a Spring Boot Application using CData JDBC Sybase Driver

Spring Boot is a framework that makes engineering Java web applications easier. It offers the ability to create standalone applications with minimal configuration. When paired with the CData JDBC driver for Sybase, Spring Boot can work with live Sybase data. This article shows how to configure data sources and retrieve data in your Java Spring Boot Application, using the CData JDBC Driver for Sybase.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData JDBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Sybase data. When you issue complex SQL queries to Sybase, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Sybase 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 Sybase data using native data types.

Creating the Spring Boot Project in Java

In an IDE (in this tutorial, we use IntelliJ), choose a Maven project: In the generated project, go to the pom.xml file, and add the required dependencies for Spring Boot:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<parent>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
<version>2.7.2</version>
<relativePath/>
</parent>
<groupId>com.example</groupId>
<artifactId>demo</artifactId>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<name>demo</name>
<description>Demo project for Spring Boot</description>
<properties>
<java.version>1.8</java.version>
</properties>
<build>
<plugins>
	<plugin>
		<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
		<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
	</plugin>

	<plugin>
		<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
		<artifactId>maven-install-plugin</artifactId>
		<version>2.5.1</version>
		<executions>
			<execution>
				<id>id.install-file</id>
				<phase>clean</phase>
				<goals>
					<goal>install-file</goal>
				</goals>
				<configuration>
					<file>C:\Program Files\CData[product_name] ####\lib\cdata.jdbc.sybase.jar</file>
					<groupId>org.cdata.connectors</groupId>
					<artifactId>cdata-sybase-connector</artifactId>
					<version>23</version>
					<packaging>jar</packaging>
				</configuration>
			</execution>
		</executions>
	</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>

<dependencies>
<dependency>
	<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
	<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
	<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
	<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-jdbc</artifactId>
	<version>2.7.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
	<groupId>org.cdata.connectors</groupId>
	<artifactId>cdata-sybase-connector</artifactId>
	<version>23</version>
</dependency>

<dependency>
	<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
	<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
	<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>



<distributionManagement>
<repository>
	<uniqueVersion>false</uniqueVersion>
	<id>test</id>
	<name>My Repository</name>
	<url>scp://repo/maven2</url>
	<layout>default</layout>
</repository>
</distributionManagement>

</project>

Note: The year (####) and the version number (as seen in the provided XML script) should be adjusted according to the current version of the CData JDBC driver being utilized.

Project Structure

In the java directory, create a new package. Usually the name of the package is the name of the groupId (com.example) followed by the artifactId (.MDS).

Mark the "java" directory as the "Sources Root" (denoted by a blue color). To do this, right-click the java directory and choose Mark Directory as -> Sources Root (As shown below). Additionally, mark the "resources" directory as the "Resources Root."

Store Database Connection Properties

Create an "application.properties" file to store the database connection properties. To do this, right-click on the "resources" folder, opt for New -> File, input the file name as "application.properties," and press Enter.

In the application.properties file, we set the configuration properties for the Sybase JDBC Driver, using the Class name and JDBC URL:


	spring.datasource.driver=cdata.jdbc.sybase.SybaseDriver
	spring.datasource.url=jdbc:sybase:User=myuser;Password=mypassword;Server=localhost;Database=mydatabase;Charset=iso_1;

Built-in Connection String Designer

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


java -jar cdata.jdbc.sybase.jar

To connect to Sybase, specify the following connection properties:

Server: Set this to the name or network address of the Sybase database instance.
Database: Set this to the name of the Sybase database running on the specified Server.

Optionally, you can also secure your connections with TLS/SSL by setting UseSSL to true.

Sybase supports several methods for authentication including Password and Kerberos.

Connect Using Password Authentication

Set the AuthScheme to Password and set the following connection properties to use Sybase authentication.

User: Set this to the username of the authenticating Sybase user.
Password: Set this to the username of the authenticating Sybase user.

Connect using LDAP Authentication

To connect with LDAP authentication, you will need to configure Sybase server-side to use the LDAP authentication mechanism.

After configuring Sybase for LDAP, you can connect using the same credentials as Password authentication.

Connect Using Kerberos Authentication

To leverage Kerberos authentication, begin by enabling it setting AuthScheme to Kerberos. See the Using Kerberos section in the Help documentation for more information on using Kerberos authentication.

You can find an example connection string below: Server=MyServer;Port=MyPort;User=SampleUser;Password=SamplePassword;Database=MyDB;Kerberos=true;KerberosKDC=MyKDC;KerberosRealm=MYREALM.COM;KerberosSPN=server-name

After setting the properties in the application.properties file, we now configure them.

Data Source Configuration

First, we mark the Sybase data source as our primary data source. Then, we create a Data Source Bean.

Create a DriverManagerDataSource.java file and create a Bean within it, as shown below. If @Bean gives an error, Spring Boot may not have loaded properly. To fix this, go to File -> Invalidate Caches and restart. Additionally, make sure that Maven has added the Spring Boot dependencies.

To create a data source bean, we use the DriverManagerDataSource Class. This class allows us to set the properties of the data source. To create this Java class, right-click on "com.example.MDS" package, and choose New -> Java Class.

The following code shows the bean definition of our data source. Each driver should have a bean.


import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.jdbc.DataSourceBuilder;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Primary;
import org.springframework.core.env.Environment;
import javax.sql.DataSource;

public class DriverManagerDataSource{
	@Autowired
	private static Environment env;

	@Bean(name ="Sybase")
	@Primary
	public static DataSource SybaseDataSource()
	{

	DataSourceBuilder<?> dataSourceBuilder = DataSourceBuilder.create();
		dataSourceBuilder.driverClassName("cdata.jdbc.sybase.SybaseDriver");
		dataSourceBuilder.url("jdbc:sybase:User=myuser;Password=mypassword;Server=localhost;Database=mydatabase;Charset=iso_1;");
		return dataSourceBuilder.build();
	}
	
	//@Override
	public void setEnvironment( final Environment environment) {
	env=environment;
	}
}

Next, move the Sybase jar file to the Documents folder (see path in command below) - The idea is to have a path without any spaces for the jar file. Then, click the Maven icon (top right corner of IntelliJ) and click "Execute Maven Goal." Now, run the following command:


mvn install:install-file "-Dfile=C:\Program Files\CData[product_name] ####\lib\cdata.jdbc.sybase.jar" -DgroupId=org.cdata.connectors -DartifactId=cdata-sybase-connector -Dversion=23 -Dpackaging=jar

Follow either of the given steps to run this command:

The "-Dfile location" can be kept as the default installation path of the CData JDBC Driver. Make sure to keep the path in quotations in this case. Also, change the year and "Dversion" based on the current version of the driver being used.
As mentioned earlier in the article, in case you relocate the jar file to the Documents folder, make sure to modify the path in the provided command. In such instances, avoid enclosing the Dfile location in quotations and edit "Dversion" based on the current version of the driver being used.

After pressing enter, we see the following output:

Testing the Connection

The last step is testing the connection. Create a new Java class following the format (e.g., "MDSApplication"). You have the flexibility to select any name for the application class. We call the data source in the main method of MDSApplication.java:


import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.jdbc.DataSourceAutoConfiguration;
import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import static com.example.demo.DriverManagerDataSources.SybaseDataSource;


@SpringBootApplication(exclude = {DataSourceAutoConfiguration.class})
	public class MDSApplication {
		//remove the comment on the line below
		public static void main (){
		SpringApplication.run(DemoApplication.class, args);
		Connection conn = SybaseDataSource().getConnection();
		System.out.println("Catalog: "+ conn.getCatalog());
	}
}

The output generated should look like this:

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