Feed Email Data into FineReport

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

Set Up a JDBC Data Source of Email Data

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

1. Copy the cdata.jdbc.email.jar file from the lib folder in the CData JDBC Driver for Email installation directory to the lib folder of the FineReport installation directory. You will need to copy the cdata.jdbc.email.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.email.EmailDriver
3. URL: A standard JDBC connection string using semicolon-separated connection properties.

   The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid credentials. The Server must be specified to retrieve emails and the SMTPServer must be specified to send emails.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.email.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:email:User=username@gmail.com;Password=password;Server=imap.gmail.com;Port=993;SMTP Server=smtp.gmail.com;SMTP Port=465;SSL Mode=EXPLICIT;Protocol=IMAP;Mailbox=Inbox;
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 Email set up, you can use it as FineReport data source.

Select Email 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 Email entities will appear as tables on the left pane.
4. Write a SELECT statement for the Email data tables and columns that you want to load.
5. Click preview and data is shown as table.

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