Stream Neo4J 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 Neo4J, Kafka can work with live Neo4J data. This article describes how to connect, access and stream Neo4J data into Apache Kafka Topics and to start Confluent Control Center to help users secure, manage, and monitor the Neo4J 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 Neo4J data. When you issue complex SQL queries to Neo4J, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Neo4J 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 Neo4J data using native data types.

Prerequisites

Before connecting the CData JDBC Driver for streaming Neo4J 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 Neo4J data

1. Download CData JDBC Driver for Neo4J 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 Neo4J mkdir Neo4j
   2. Move the downloaded driver file (.zip) into this new directory mv Neo4jJDBCDriver.zip Neo4j/
   3. Unzip the CData Neo4jJDBCDriver contents into this new directory unzip Neo4jJDBCDriver.zip
3. Open the Neo4J directory and navigate to the lib folder ls cd lib/
4. Copy the contents of the lib folder of Neo4J into the lib folder of Kafka Connect JDBC. Check the Kafka Connect JDBC folder contents to confirm that the cdata.jdbc.neo4j.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 Neo4J JDBC driver license using the given command, followed by your Name and Email ID java -jar cdata.jdbc.neo4j.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 Neo4J 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_neo4j_01", "config": { "connector.class": "io.confluent.connect.jdbc.JdbcSourceConnector", "connection.url": "jdbc:neo4j:Server=localhost;Port=7474;User=my_user;Password=my_password;", "topic.prefix": "neo4j-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 Neo4J data.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Neo4J JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.neo4j.jar

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

     To connect to Neo4j, set the following connection properties:

     • Server: The server hosting the Neo4j instance.
     • Port: The port on which the Neo4j service is running. The provider connects to port 7474 by default.
     • User: The username of the user using the Neo4j instance.
     • Password: The password of the user using the Neo4j instance.

   • topic.prefix: A prefix that will be added to the Kafka topics created by the connector. It's set to "neo4j-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 Neo4J 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 Neo4J and start streaming Neo4J data into Apache Kafka. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.