Connect to Freshdesk Data in as an External Source in Dremio

The CData JDBC Driver for Freshdesk implements JDBC Standards and allows various applications, including Dremio, to work with live Freshdesk data. Dremio is a data lakehouse platform designed to empower self-service, interactive analytics on the data lake. With the CData JDBC Driver, you can include live Freshdesk data as a part of your enterprise data lake. This article describes how to connect to Freshdesk data from Dremio as an External Source.

The CData JDBC Driver enables high-speed access to live Freshdesk data in Dremio. Once you install the driver, authenticate with Freshdesk and gain immediate access to Freshdesk data within your data lake. By surfacing Freshdesk data using native data types and handling complex filters, aggregations, & other operations automatically, the CData JDBC Driver grants seamless access to Freshdesk data.

Build the ARP Connector

To use the CData JDBC Driver in Dremio, you need to build an Advanced Relation Pushdown (ARP) Connector. You can view the source code for the Connector on GitHub or download the ZIP file (GitHub.com) directly. Once you copy or extract the files, run the following command from the root directory of the connector (the directory containing the pom.xml file) to build the connector.

mvn clean install

Once the JAR file for the connector is built (in the target directory), you are ready to copy the ARP connector and JDBC Driver to your Dremio instance.

Installing the Connector and JDBC Driver

Install the ARP Connector to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/ and the JDBC Driver for Freshdesk to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/3rdparty. You can use commands similar to the following:

ARP Connector

docker cp PATH\TO\dremio-freshdesk-plugin-20.0.0.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/

JDBC Driver for Freshdesk

docker cp PATH\TO\cdata.jdbc.freshdesk.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/3rdparty/

Connecting to Freshdesk

Freshdesk will now appear as an External Source option in Dremio. The ARP Connector built uses a JDBC URL to connect to Freshdesk data. The JDBC Driver has a built-in connection string designer that you can use (see below).

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

java -jar cdata.jdbc.freshdesk.jar

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

FreshDesk makes use of basic authentication. To connect to data, set the following connection properties:

• Domain: Set this to the domain associated with your FreshDesk account. For example, in your URL: https://my_domain.freshdesk.com.
• APIKey: Set this to the API key associated with your FreshDesk account. To retrieve your API key, Log into your support Portal -> Click on profile picture in the top right corner -> profile settings page. The API key will be available below the change password section to the right.

NOTE: To use the JDBC Driver in Dremio, you will need a license (full or trial) and a Runtime Key (RTK). For more information on obtaining this license (or a trial), contact our sales team.

Add the Runtime Key (RTK) to the JDBC URL. You will end up with a JDBC URL similar to the following:

jdbc:freshdesk:RTK=5246...;Domain=MyDomain;APIKey=myAPIKey;

Access Freshdesk as an External Source

To add Freshdesk as an External Source, click to add a new source and select FreshDesk. Copy the JDBC URL and paste it into the New FreshDesk Source wizard.

Save the connection and you are ready to query live Freshdesk data in Dremio, easily incorporating Freshdesk data into your data lake.

More Information & Free Trial

Using the CData JDBC Driver for Freshdesk in Dremio, you can incorporate live Freshdesk data into your data lake. Check out our CData JDBC Driver for Freshdesk page for more information about connecting to Freshdesk. Download a free, 30 day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Freshdesk and get started today.