Create Informatica Mappings From/To a JDBC Data Source for Halo Service Desk

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Create Halo Service Desk data objects in Informatica using the standard JDBC connection process: Copy the JAR and then connect.

Informatica provides a powerful, elegant means of transporting and transforming your data. By utilizing the CData JDBC Driver for Halo Service Desk, you are gaining access to a driver based on industry-proven standards that integrates seamlessly with Informatica's powerful data transportation and manipulation features. This tutorial shows how to transfer and browse Halo Service Desk data in Informatica PowerCenter.

Deploy the Driver

To deploy the driver to the Informatica PowerCenter server, copy the CData JAR and .lic file, located in the lib subfolder in the installation directory, to the following folder: Informatica-installation-directory\services\shared\jars\thirdparty.

To work with Halo Service Desk data in the Developer tool, you will need to copy the CData JAR and .lic file, located in the lib subfolder in the installation directory, into the following folders:

  • Informatica-installation-directory\client\externaljdbcjars
  • Informatica-installation-directory\externaljdbcjars

Create the JDBC Connection

Follow the steps below to connect from Informatica Developer:

  1. In the Connection Explorer pane, right-click your domain and click Create a Connection.
  2. In the New Database Connection wizard that is displayed, enter a name and Id for the connection and in the Type menu select JDBC.
  3. In the JDBC Driver Class Name property, enter:
    cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver
  4. In the Connection String property, enter the JDBC URL, using the connection properties for Halo Service Desk.

    Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the HaloServiceDesk Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\HaloServiceDesk.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for HaloServiceDesk (see below).

    HaloServiceDesk API Profile Settings

    HaloServiceDesk uses API key authentication. You can find or create API keys in HaloServiceDesk under Administration > Integrations > Halo API.

    Set the following connection properties to connect:

    • AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
    • APIKey: Set this to the API key from your HaloServiceDesk account.
    • Domain: Set this to the hostname of your HaloServiceDesk instance (e.g. yourcompany.haloservicedesk.com).

    Built-in Connection String Designer

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

    
    java -jar cdata.jdbc.api.jar
    

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

    Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)

    A typical connection string is below:

    jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\HaloServiceDesk.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key;Domain=yourcompany.haloservicedesk.com';

Browse Halo Service Desk Tables

After you have added the driver JAR to the classpath and created a JDBC connection, you can now access Halo Service Desk entities in Informatica. Follow the steps below to connect to Halo Service Desk and browse Halo Service Desk tables:

  1. Connect to your repository.
  2. In the Connection Explorer, right-click the connection and click Connect.
  3. Clear the Show Default Schema Only option. The driver models Halo Service Desk entities as relational tables. (Salesforce is shown.)

You can now browse Halo Service Desk tables in the Data Viewer: Right-click the node for the table and then click Open. On the Data Viewer view, click Run.

Table data and metadata in the Data Viewer. (Salesforce is shown.)

Create Halo Service Desk Data Objects

Follow the steps below to add Halo Service Desk tables to your project:

  1. Select tables in Halo Service Desk, then right-click a table in Halo Service Desk, and click Add to Project.
  2. In the resulting dialog, select the option to create a data object for each resource.
  3. In the Select Location dialog, select your project.

    Create a Mapping

    Follow the steps below to add the Halo Service Desk source to a mapping:

    1. In the Object Explorer, right-click your project and then click New -> Mapping.
    2. Expand the node for the Halo Service Desk connection and then drag the data object for the table onto the editor.
    3. In the dialog that appears, select the Read option.
    The source Halo Service Desk table in the mapping. (Salesforce is shown.)

    Follow the steps below to map Halo Service Desk columns to a flat file:

    1. In the Object Explorer, right-click your project and then click New -> Data Object.
    2. Select Flat File Data Object -> Create as Empty -> Fixed Width.
    3. In the properties for the Halo Service Desk object, select the rows you want, right-click, and then click copy. Paste the rows into the flat file properties.
    4. Drag the flat file data object onto the mapping. In the dialog that appears, select the Write option.
    5. Click and drag to connect columns.

    To transfer Halo Service Desk data, right-click in the workspace and then click Run Mapping.

    The completed mapping. (Salesforce is shown.)

Ready to get started?

Connect to live data from Halo Service Desk with the API Driver

Connect to Halo Service Desk