Feed SAS xpt Data into FineReport

The CData JDBC Driver for SAS xpt fully implements the JDBC standard and can provide SAS xpt data connectivity to a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools and custom applications. In this article, we explain how to set SAS xpt data as JDBC data source in FineReport and view SAS xpt data as a table in the Report Designer.

Set Up a JDBC Data Source of SAS xpt Data

Follow the instruction below to set SAS xpt data as a FineReport database connection.

1. Copy the cdata.jdbc.sasxpt.jar file from the lib folder in the CData JDBC Driver for SAS xpt installation directory to the lib folder of the FineReport installation directory. You will need to copy the cdata.jdbc.sasxpt.lic file as well.
2. From the Server tab, select Define Data Connection, click to add a new connection, and click JDBC.

Next we will set up the data connection definition in the window.

1. Database: Others
2. JDBC Driver: cdata.jdbc.sasxpt.SASXptDriver
3. URL: A standard JDBC connection string using semicolon-separated connection properties.

   Connecting to Local SASXpt Files

   You can connect to local SASXpt file by setting the URI to a folder containing SASXpt files.

   Connecting to S3 data source

   You can connect to Amazon S3 source to read SASXpt files. Set the following properties to connect:

   • URI: Set this to the folder within your bucket that you would like to connect to.
   • AWSAccessKey: Set this to your AWS account access key.
   • AWSSecretKey: Set this to your AWS account secret key.
   • TemporaryLocalFolder: Set this to the path, or URI, to the folder that is used to temporarily download SASXpt file(s).

   Connecting to Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2

   You can connect to ADLS Gen2 to read SASXpt files. Set the following properties to connect:

   • URI: Set this to the name of the file system and the name of the folder which contacts your SASXpt files.
   • AzureAccount: Set this to the name of the Azure Data Lake storage account.
   • AzureAccessKey: Set this to our Azure DataLakeStore Gen 2 storage account access key.
   • TemporaryLocalFolder: Set this to the path, or URI, to the folder that is used to temporarily download SASXpt file(s).

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.sasxpt.jar

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

   When you configure the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

   A typical JDBC URL is below:

   jdbc:sasxpt:URI=C:/folder;
4. Click Connection pool attributes and set Test before getting connections to No.

Click Test connection to ensure you have configured the connection properly. With the connection to SAS xpt set up, you can use it as FineReport data source.

Select SAS xpt Data in the Report Designer.

1. Click to add a new template data set and select DB query to open the database query window.
2. Choose the JDBC connection that you created from the dropdown list.
3. The SAS xpt entities will appear as tables on the left pane.
4. Write a SELECT statement for the SAS xpt data tables and columns that you want to load.
5. Click preview and data is shown as table.

With these simple steps, SAS xpt can be used as a JDBC data source in FineReport.