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Get the Report →Stream ConstantContact Data into Apache Kafka Topics
Access and stream ConstantContact data in Apache Kafka using the CData JDBC Driver and the Kafka Connect JDBC connector.
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 API Driver for JDBC, Kafka can work with live ConstantContact data. This article describes how to connect, access and stream ConstantContact data into Apache Kafka Topics and to start Confluent Control Center to help users secure, manage, and monitor the ConstantContact 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 ConstantContact data. When you issue complex SQL queries to ConstantContact, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to ConstantContact 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 ConstantContact data using native data types.
Prerequisites
Before connecting the CData JDBC Driver for streaming ConstantContact data in Apache Kafka Topics, install and configure the following in the client Linux-based system.
- Confluent Platform for Apache Kafka
- Confluent Hub CLI Installation
- Self-Managed Kafka JDBC Source Connector for Confluent Platform
Define a New JDBC Connection to ConstantContact data
- Download CData API Driver for JDBC on a Linux-based system
- Follow the given instructions to create a new directory extract all the driver contents into it:
- Create a new directory named ConstantContact
mkdir API
- Move the downloaded driver file (.zip) into this new directory
mv APIJDBCDriver.zip API/
- Unzip the CData APIJDBCDriver contents into this new directory
unzip APIJDBCDriver.zip
- Create a new directory named ConstantContact
- Open the ConstantContact directory and navigate to the lib folder
ls cd lib/
- Copy the contents of the lib folder of ConstantContact into the lib folder of Kafka Connect JDBC. Check the Kafka Connect JDBC folder contents to confirm that the cdata.jdbc.api.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/
- Install the CData ConstantContact JDBC driver license using the given command, followed by your Name and Email ID
java -jar cdata.jdbc.api.jar -l
- Enter the product key or "TRIAL" (In the scenarios of license expiry, please contact our CData Support team)
- 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 ConstantContact to stream messages using Kafka Connect Driver into Kafka Topics on ksqlDB.
- 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_api_01", "config": { "connector.class": "io.confluent.connect.jdbc.JdbcSourceConnector", "connection.url": "jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\ConstantContact.apip;Authscheme=OAuth;OAuthClientId=your_client_id;OAuthClientSecret=your_client_secret;CallbackUrl=your_callback_url;", "topic.prefix": "api-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 ConstantContact data.
Built-in Connection String Designer
For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the ConstantContact JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.
java -jar cdata.jdbc.api.jar
Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.
Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the ConstantContact Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\ConstantContact.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Profile (see below).
ConstantContact API Profile Settings
ConstantContact uses OAuth-based authentication.
First, you will need to register an OAuth application with ConstantContact. You can do so from the ConstantContact API Guide (https://v3.developer.constantcontact.com/api_guide/index.html), under "MyApplications" > "New Application". Your Oauth application will be assigned a client id (API Key) and you can generate a client secret (Secret).
After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:
- AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
- InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to manage the process to obtain the OAuthAccessToken.
- OAuthClientId: Set this to the client_id that is specified in you app settings.
- OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client_secret that is specified in you app settings.
- CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI you specified in your app settings.
- topic.prefix: A prefix that will be added to the Kafka topics created by the connector. It's set to "api-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 ConstantContact as Kafka Topics.
Note: The IP Address (server) to POST the request (shown above) is the Linux Network IP Address.
- Run ksqlDB and list the topics. Use the commands:
ksql list topics;
- 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 API Driver for JDBC and start streaming ConstantContact data into Apache Kafka. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.