How to connect PolyBase to Confluence

PolyBase for SQL Server allows you to query external data by using the same Transact-SQL syntax used to query a database table. When paired with the CData ODBC Driver for Confluence, you get access to your Confluence data directly alongside your SQL Server data. This article describes creating an external data source and external tables to grant access to live Confluence data using T-SQL queries.

NOTE: PolyBase is only available on SQL Server 19 and above, and only for Standard SQL Server.

The CData ODBC drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live Confluence data using PolyBase due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SQL Server to Confluence, the driver pushes down supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Confluence and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. And with PolyBase, you can also join SQL Server data with Confluence data, using a single query to pull data from distributed sources.

Connect to Confluence

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs. To create an external data source in SQL Server using PolyBase, configure a System DSN (CData Confluence Sys is created automatically).

Obtaining an API Token

An API token is necessary for account authentication. To generate one, login to your Atlassian account and navigate to API tokens > Create API token. The generated token will be displayed.

Connect Using a Confluence Cloud Account

To connect to a Cloud account, provide the following (Note: Password has been deprecated for connecting to a Cloud Account and is now used only to connect to a Server Instance.):

• User: The user which will be used to authenticate with the Confluence server.
• APIToken: The API Token associated with the currently authenticated user.
• Url: The URL associated with your JIRA endpoint. For example, https://yoursitename.atlassian.net.

Connect Using a Confluence Server Instance

To connect to a Server instance, provide the following:

• User: The user which will be used to authenticate with the Confluence instance.
• Password: The password which will be used to authenticate with the Confluence server.
• Url: The URL associated with your JIRA endpoint. For example, https://yoursitename.atlassian.net.

Click "Test Connection" to ensure that the DSN is connected to Confluence properly. Navigate to the Tables tab to review the table definitions for Confluence.

Create an External Data Source for Confluence Data

After configuring the connection, you need to create a master encryption key and a credential database for the external data source.

Creating a Master Encryption Key

Execute the following SQL command to create a new master key, 'ENCRYPTION,' to encrypt the credentials for the external data source.

CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'password';

Creating a Credential Database

Execute the following SQL command to create credentials for the external data source connected to Confluence data.

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL confluence_creds
WITH IDENTITY = 'username', SECRET = 'password';

Create an External Data Source for Confluence

Execute a CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE SQL command to create an external data source for Confluence with PolyBase:

• Set the LOCATION parameter , using the DSN and credentials configured earlier.

For Confluence, set SERVERNAME to the URL or address for your server (e.g. 'localhost' or '127.0.0.1' for local servers; the remote URL for remote servers). Leave PORT empty. PUSHDOWN is set to ON by default, meaning the ODBC Driver can leverage server-side processing for complex queries.

CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE cdata_confluence_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData Confluence Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = confluence_creds
);

Create External Tables for Confluence

After creating the external data source, use CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statements to link to Confluence data from your SQL Server instance. The table column definitions must match those exposed by the CData ODBC Driver for Confluence. You can refer to the Tables tab of the DSN Configuration Wizard to see the table definition.

Sample CREATE TABLE Statement

The statement to create an external table based on a Confluence Pages would look similar to the following:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE Pages(
  Key [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  Name [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='Pages',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_confluence_source
);

Having created external tables for Confluence in your SQL Server instance, you are now able to query local and remote data simultaneously. Thanks to built-in query processing in the CData ODBC Driver, you know that as much query processing as possible is being pushed to Confluence, freeing up local resources and computing power. Download a free, 30-day trial of the ODBC Driver for Confluence and start working with live Confluence data alongside your SQL Server data today.