Connect to Live HCL Domino Data in PostGresSQL Interface through CData Connect Cloud

There are a vast number of PostgreSQL clients available on the Internet. PostgreSQL is a popular interface for data access. When you pair PostgreSQL with CData Connect Cloud, you gain database-like access to live HCL Domino data from PostgreSQL. In this article, we walk through the process of connecting to HCL Domino data in Connect Cloud and establishing a connection between Connect Cloud and PostgreSQL using a TDS foreign data wrapper (FDW).

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL Server interface for HCL Domino, allowing you to query data from HCL Domino without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to HCL Domino, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested HCL Domino data quickly.

Connect to HCL Domino in Connect Cloud

CData Connect Cloud uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "HCL Domino" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to HCL Domino.

   Connecting to Domino

   To connect to Domino data, set the following properties:

   • URL: The host name or IP of the server hosting the Domino database. Include the port of the server hosting the Domino database. For example: http://sampleserver:1234/
   • DatabaseScope: The name of a scope in the Domino Web UI. The driver exposes forms and views for the schema governed by the specified scope. In the Domino Admin UI, select the Scopes menu in the sidebar. Set this property to the name of an existing scope.

   Authenticating with Domino

   Domino supports authenticating via login credentials or an Azure Active Directory OAuth application:

   Login Credentials

   To authenticate with login credentials, set the following properties:

   • AuthScheme: Set this to "OAuthPassword"
   • User: The username of the authenticating Domino user
   • Password: The password associated with the authenticating Domino user

   The driver uses the login credentials to automatically perform an OAuth token exchange.

   AzureAD

   This authentication method uses Azure Active Directory as an IdP to obtain a JWT token. You need to create a custom OAuth application in Azure Active Directory and configure it as an IdP. To do so, follow the instructions in the Help documentation. Then set the following properties:

   • AuthScheme: Set this to "AzureAD"
   • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
   • OAuthClientId: The Client ID obtained when setting up the custom OAuth application.
   • OAuthClientSecret: The Client secret obtained when setting up the custom OAuth application.
   • CallbackURL: The redirect URI defined when you registered your app. For example: https://localhost:33333
   • AzureTenant: The Microsoft Online tenant being used to access data. Supply either a value in the form companyname.microsoft.com or the tenant ID.

     The tenant ID is the same as the directory ID shown in the Azure Portal's Azure Active Directory > Properties page.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add HCL Domino Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
2. On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give your PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

Build the TDS Foreign Data Wrapper

The Foreign Data Wrapper can be installed as an extension to PostgreSQL, without recompiling PostgreSQL. The tds_fdw extension is used as an example (https://github.com/tds-fdw/tds_fdw).

1. You can clone and build the git repository via something like the following view source: sudo apt-get install git git clone https://github.com/tds-fdw/tds_fdw.git cd tds_fdw make USE_PGXS=1 sudo make USE_PGXS=1 install Note: If you have several PostgreSQL versions and you do not want to build for the default one, first locate where the binary for pg_config is, take note of the full path, and then append PG_CONFIG= after USE_PGXS=1 at the make commands.
2. After you finish the installation, then start the server: sudo service postgresql start
3. Then go inside the Postgres database psql -h localhost -U postgres -d postgres Note: Instead of localhost you can put the IP where your PostgreSQL is hosted.

Connect to HCL Domino data as a PostgreSQL Database and query the data!

After you have installed the extension, follow the steps below to start executing queries to HCL Domino data:

1. Log into your database.
2. Load the extension for the database: CREATE EXTENSION tds_fdw;
3. Create a server object for HCL Domino data: CREATE SERVER "Domino1" FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER tds_fdw OPTIONS (servername'tds.cdata.com', port '14333', database 'Domino1');
4. Configure user mapping with your email and Personal Access Token from your Connect Cloud account: CREATE USER MAPPING for postgres SERVER "Domino1" OPTIONS (username '[email protected]', password 'your_personal_access_token' );
5. Create the local schema: CREATE SCHEMA "Domino1";
6. Create a foreign table in your local database: #Using a table_name definition: CREATE FOREIGN TABLE "Domino1".ByName ( id varchar, Address varchar) SERVER "Domino1" OPTIONS(table_name 'Domino.ByName', row_estimate_method 'showplan_all'); #Or using a schema_name and table_name definition: CREATE FOREIGN TABLE "Domino1".ByName ( id varchar, Address varchar) SERVER "Domino1" OPTIONS (schema_name 'Domino', table_name 'ByName', row_estimate_method 'showplan_all'); #Or using a query definition: CREATE FOREIGN TABLE "Domino1".ByName ( id varchar, Address varchar) SERVER "Domino1" OPTIONS (query 'SELECT * FROM Domino.ByName', row_estimate_method 'showplan_all'); #Or setting a remote column name: CREATE FOREIGN TABLE "Domino1".ByName ( id varchar, col2 varchar OPTIONS (column_name 'Address')) SERVER "Domino1" OPTIONS (schema_name 'Domino', table_name 'ByName', row_estimate_method 'showplan_all');
7. You can now execute read/write commands to HCL Domino: SELECT id, Address FROM "Domino1".ByName;

More Information & Free Trial

Now, you have created a simple query from live HCL Domino data. For more information on connecting to HCL Domino (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect Cloud page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live HCL Domino data in PostgreSQL.