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Consume IBM Cloud Object Storage OData Feeds in PowerBuilder
This article demonstrates how to consume IBM Cloud Object Storage data as OData feeds from PowerBuilder using the API Server.
The CData API Server produces secure feeds of IBM Cloud Object Storage data that you can consume in PowerBuilder DataWindows. The API Server supports the major Web services, including OData, Atom, JSON, HTML, CSV, TSV, and RSS. It also supports the major authentication schemes and SSL.
This article shows how to create a DataWindow that uses the CData API Server to retrieve data.
Set Up the API Server
Follow the steps below to begin producing secure IBM Cloud Object Storage OData services:
Deploy
The API Server runs on your own server. On Windows, you can deploy using the stand-alone server or IIS. On a Java servlet container, drop in the API Server WAR file. See the help documentation for more information and how-tos.
The API Server is also easy to deploy on Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2, and Heroku.
Connect to IBM Cloud Object Storage
After you deploy the API Server, provide authentication values and other connection properties needed to connect to IBM Cloud Object Storage by clicking Settings -> Connections and adding a new connection in the API Server administration console.
Register a New Instance of Cloud Object Storage
If you do not already have Cloud Object Storage in your IBM Cloud account, follow the procedure below to install an instance of SQL Query in your account:
- Log in to your IBM Cloud account.
- Navigate to the page, choose a name for your instance and click Create. You will be redirected to the instance of Cloud Object Storage you just created.
Connecting using OAuth Authentication
There are certain connection properties you need to set before you can connect. You can obtain these as follows:
API Key
To connect with IBM Cloud Object Storage, you need an API Key. You can obtain this as follows:
- Log in to your IBM Cloud account.
- Navigate to the Platform API Keys page.
- On the middle-right corner click "Create an IBM Cloud API Key" to create a new API Key.
- In the pop-up window, specify the API Key name and click "Create". Note the API Key as you can never access it again from the dashboard.
Cloud Object Storage CRN
If you have multiple accounts, specify the CloudObjectStorageCRN explicitly. To find the appropriate value, you can:
- Query the Services view. This will list your IBM Cloud Object Storage instances along with the CRN for each.
- Locate the CRN directly in IBM Cloud. To do so, navigate to your IBM Cloud Dashboard. In the Resource List, Under Storage, select your Cloud Object Storage resource to get its CRN.
Connecting to Data
You can now set the following to connect to data:
- InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
- ApiKey: Set this to your API key which was noted during setup.
- CloudObjectStorageCRN (Optional): Set this to the cloud object storage CRN you want to work with. While the connector attempts to retrieve this automatically, specifying this explicitly is recommended if you have more than Cloud Object Storage account.
When you connect, the connector completes the OAuth process.
- Extracts the access token and authenticates requests.
- Saves OAuth values in OAuthSettingsLocation to be persisted across connections.
You can then choose the IBM Cloud Object Storage entities you want to allow the API Server access to by clicking Settings -> Resources.
Additionally, click Settings -> Server and change the following settings for compatibility with PowerBuilder:
- Default Format: Select XML (Atom) in the menu.
- Default Version: Select 2.0 in the menu.
Authorize API Server Users
After determining the OData services you want to produce, authorize users by clicking Settings -> Users. The API Server uses authtoken-based authentication and supports the major authentication schemes. Access can also be restricted based on IP address; by default, only connections to the local machine are allowed. You can authenticate as well as encrypt connections with SSL.
Create a Profile for IBM Cloud Object Storage
Follow the steps below to use the Database Painter tool to create a database profile for the OData API of the API Server. In the Database Painter, you can graphically manipulate data as well as execute SQL queries.
- Click Tools -> Database Painter.
- Right-click the OData node and click New Profile.
- In the Database Profile Setup dialog, enter the following:
- Profile Name: Enter a user-friendly name for the profile.
- URI: Enter the URL to the OData endpoint of the API Server. This URL will resemble the one below:
http://MyServer:8032/api.rsc - Supply User Id and Password: Click this option to use HTTP Basic authentication. Note that the API Server also supports Windows authentication.
- User Id: Enter the name of an user in the API Server.
- Password: Enter the authtoken of an user in the API Server.
- To view and modify a table, right-click a table and then click Edit Data -> Grid.
Using IBM Cloud Object Storage Data with PowerBuilder Controls
You can use standard PowerBuilder objects to connect to OData feeds and execute queries. The following example shows how to retrieve IBM Cloud Object Storage data into a DataWindow.
You can add the following code to the open method:
SQLCA.DBMS = "ODT"
SQLCA.DBParm = "ConnectString='URI=http://MyServer:8032/api.rsc;UID=MyAPIUser;PWD=MyAuthtoken'";
CONNECT USING SQLCA;
dw_objects.SetTransObject(SQLCA);
dw_objects.Retrieve();
