Integrate with Live JSON Services in MuleSoft (via CData Connect AI)

Dibyendu Datta
Dibyendu Datta
Lead Technology Evangelist
Use CData Connect AI to connect to JSON from the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform to integrate live JSON services into custom reports and dashboards.

The MuleSoft Anypoint Platform enables the building, deployment, and management of APIs and integrations, facilitating seamless connectivity across applications and systems. When combined with CData Connect AI, it provides access to JSON services for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article explains how to use CData Connect AI to create a live connection to JSON and how to connect and access live JSON services from the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform.

Prerequisites

Before configuring and using MuleSoft with CData Connect AI, you must first connect a data source to your CData Connect AI account. For more information, see the Connections section.

Additionally, you need to generate a Personal Access Token (PAT) on the Settings page. Be sure to copy it down, as it serves as your password during authentication.

Configure JSON Connectivity for MuleSoft

Connectivity to JSON from MuleSoft is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with JSON services from MuleSoft, we start by creating and configuring a JSON connection.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
    2. Adding a Connection
  2. Select "JSON" from the Add Connection panel
    3. Selecting a data source
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to JSON.

    See the Getting Started chapter in the data provider documentation to authenticate to your data source: The data provider models JSON APIs as bidirectional database tables and JSON files as read-only views (local files, files stored on popular cloud services, and FTP servers). The major authentication schemes are supported, including HTTP Basic, Digest, NTLM, OAuth, and FTP. See the Getting Started chapter in the data provider documentation for authentication guides.

    After setting the URI and providing any authentication values, set DataModel to more closely match the data representation to the structure of your data.

    The DataModel property is the controlling property over how your data is represented into tables and toggles the following basic configurations.

    • Document (default): Model a top-level, document view of your JSON data. The data provider returns nested elements as aggregates of data.
    • FlattenedDocuments: Implicitly join nested documents and their parents into a single table.
    • Relational: Return individual, related tables from hierarchical data. The tables contain a primary key and a foreign key that links to the parent document.

    See the Modeling JSON Data chapter for more information on configuring the relational representation. You will also find the sample data used in the following examples. The data includes entries for people, the cars they own, and various maintenance services performed on those cars.

    Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
  4. Click Save & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add JSON Connection page and update the User-based permissions. Updating permissions

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

  1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
  2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
  3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. Creating a new PAT
  4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to JSON services from Mulesoft.

Connecting to CData Connect AI

Follow these steps to establish a connection from Mulesoft to CData Connect AI through the JDBC driver:

  1. Download and install the CData Connect AI JDBC driver.
    • Open the Integrations page of CData Connect AI.
    • Search for and select JDBC.
    • Download and run the setup file.
    • When the installation is complete, the JAR file can be found in the installation directory (inside the lib folder).
  2. Log into Mulesoft Anypoint Studio or launch the desktop application.
  3. Create a new Mulesoft project. Create a new MuleSoft project Add the project name The new project appears in a project folder. The new project is created
  4. In the Mule Palette located on the right, drag an HTTP Listener to the Message Flow area. Drag the HTTP Listener to the Message Flow area
  5. Click on the HTTP Listener to configure it. Click on the HTTP Listener to configure it
  6. Click the + sign on the right of Connector configuration. The HTTP Listener config dialog appears.
  7. Configure the HTTP Listener, providing a Port on which to query your data, and click OK. Add the port number to configure the HTTP Listener
  8. Provide a path on which to perform the actions. The HTTP Listener is now configured. Provide a path to perform the actions
  9. In the Mule Palette on the right, type database in the search bar. Search for database in Mule Palette search bar
  10. Drag the database operation you want to perform to the Message Flow area. For this example, we choose Select. Drag the database operation in the Message Flow area
  11. Select Generic Connection from the Connection dropdown in the Database Config dialog. Select Generic Connection from the Connection dropdown
  12. Click the Configure button to configure the JDBC driver. Select Use local file from the drop-down list. Select Use local file from the dropdown
  13. Locate the CData Connect AI JAR file from the JDBC driver installation and click OK. Add the CData Connect AI JAR file path
  14. Provide the following information:
    • URL: the URL for the connection, for example: 
       jdbc:connect:Authscheme=Basic;user=username;password=PAT
      Note: the password is the PAT created in the Prerequisites section.
    • Driver class name: Enter the Driver class name as: 
       cdata.jdbc.connect.ConnectDriver
      Add the URL and the Driver class name
  15. Click Test Connection. Click on Test Connection
  16. If the connection is successful, provide the SQL Query Text in the editor. You can see the table metadata on the right side in the Output tab. Write the SQL Query
  17. In the Mule Palette, drag Transform Message to the Message Flow area. Drag Transform Message to the Message Flow area
  18. Click Transform Message to configure it. Change the Output as follows: Configure Transform Message
  19. Save your project and run it. In the console, Mulesoft starts initializing the dependencies. Save and Run the project
  20. Once you see the message, "Message source 'listener' on flow your_project_name successfully started", you can start querying your data at the endpoint you provided. Check for the
  21. Query to check out the data using the Postman application (as shown below). Send an API request from Postman to check the JSON data

SQL Access to JSON Services from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live JSON services from MuleSoft Anypoint Platform. You can create more connections to ensure seamless data flow, automate business processes, and manage APIs - all without replicating JSON services.

To get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources (including JSON) directly from your cloud applications, explore the CData Connect AI.

Ready to get started?

Learn more about CData Connect AI or sign up for free trial access:

Free Trial

In this article

Related articles