ETL FTP in Oracle Data Integrator

Leverage existing skills by using the JDBC standard to read and write to FTP: Through drop-in integration into ETL tools like Oracle Data Integrator (ODI), the CData JDBC Driver for FTP connects real-time FTP data to your data warehouse, business intelligence, and Big Data technologies.

JDBC connectivity enables you to work with FTP just as you would any other database in ODI. As with an RDBMS, you can use the driver to connect directly to the FTP APIs in real time instead of working with flat files.

This article walks through a JDBC-based ETL -- FTP to Oracle. After reverse engineering a data model of FTP entities, you will create a mapping and select a data loading strategy -- since the driver supports SQL-92, this last step can easily be accomplished by selecting the built-in SQL to SQL Loading Knowledge Module.

Install the Driver

To install the driver, copy the driver JAR and .lic file, located in the installation folder, into the ODI appropriate directory:

• UNIX/Linux without Agent: ~/.odi/oracledi/userlib
• UNIX/Linux with Agent: $ODI_HOME/odi/agent/lib
• Windows without Agent: %APPDATA%\Roaming\odi\oracledi\userlib
• Windows with Agent: %APPDATA%\Roaming\odi\agent\lib

Restart ODI to complete the installation.

Reverse Engineer a Model

Reverse engineering the model retrieves metadata about the driver's relational view of FTP data. After reverse engineering, you can query real-time FTP data and create mappings based on FTP tables.

1. In ODI, connect to your repository and click New -> Model and Topology Objects.
2. On the Model screen of the resulting dialog, enter the following information:
   • Name: Enter FTP.
   • Technology: Select Generic SQL (for ODI Version 12.2+, select Microsoft SQL Server).
   • Logical Schema: Enter FTP.
   • Context: Select Global.
3. On the Data Server screen of the resulting dialog, enter the following information:
   • Name: Enter FTP.
   • Driver List: Select Oracle JDBC Driver.
   • Driver: Enter cdata.jdbc.ftp.FTPDriver
   • URL: Enter the JDBC URL containing the connection string.

     To connect to FTP or SFTP servers, specify at least RemoteHost and FileProtocol. Specify the port with RemotePort.

     Set User and Password to perform Basic authentication. Set SSHAuthMode to use SSH authentication. See the Getting Started section of the data provider help documentation for more information on authenticating via SSH.

     Set SSLMode and SSLServerCert to secure connections with SSL.

     The data provider lists the tables based on the available folders in your FTP server. Set the following connection properties to control the relational view of the file system:

     • RemotePath: Set this to the current working directory.
     • TableDepth: Set this to control the depth of folders to list as views.
     • FileRetrievalDepth: Set this to retrieve and list files recursively from the root table.

     Stored Procedures are available to download files, upload files, and send protocol commands. See the Data Model chapter of the FTP data provider documentation for more information.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.ftp.jar

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

     Below is a typical connection string:

     jdbc:ftp:RemoteHost=MyFTPServer;
4. On the Physical Schema screen, enter the following information:
   • Name: Select from the Drop Down menu.
   • Database (Catalog): Enter CData.
   • Owner (Schema): If you select a Schema for FTP, enter the Schema selected, otherwise enter FTP.
   • Database (Work Catalog): Enter CData.
   • Owner (Work Schema): If you select a Schema for FTP, enter the Schema selected, otherwise enter FTP.
5. In the opened model click Reverse Engineer to retrieve the metadata for FTP tables.

Edit and Save FTP Data

After reverse engineering you can now work with FTP data in ODI. To edit and save FTP data, expand the Models accordion in the Designer navigator, right-click a table, and click Data. Click Refresh to pick up any changes to the data. Click Save Changes when you are finished making changes.

Create an ETL Project

Follow the steps below to create an ETL from FTP. You will load MyDirectory entities into the sample data warehouse included in the ODI Getting Started VM.

1. Open SQL Developer and connect to your Oracle database. Right-click the node for your database in the Connections pane and click new SQL Worksheet.

   Alternatively you can use SQLPlus. From a command prompt enter the following:

   sqlplus / as sysdba
2. Enter the following query to create a new target table in the sample data warehouse, which is in the ODI_DEMO schema. The following query defines a few columns that match the MyDirectory table in FTP: CREATE TABLE ODI_DEMO.TRG_MYDIRECTORY (FILENAME NUMBER(20,0),Filesize VARCHAR2(255));
3. In ODI expand the Models accordion in the Designer navigator and double-click the Sales Administration node in the ODI_DEMO folder. The model is opened in the Model Editor.
4. Click Reverse Engineer. The TRG_MYDIRECTORY table is added to the model.
5. Right-click the Mappings node in your project and click New Mapping. Enter a name for the mapping and clear the Create Empty Dataset option. The Mapping Editor is displayed.
6. Drag the TRG_MYDIRECTORY table from the Sales Administration model onto the mapping.
7. Drag the MyDirectory table from the FTP model onto the mapping.
8. Click the source connector point and drag to the target connector point. The Attribute Matching dialog is displayed. For this example, use the default options. The target expressions are then displayed in the properties for the target columns.
9. Open the Physical tab of the Mapping Editor and click MYDIRECTORY_AP in TARGET_GROUP.
10. In the MYDIRECTORY_AP properties, select LKM SQL to SQL (Built-In) on the Loading Knowledge Module tab.

You can then run the mapping to load FTP data into Oracle.