Connect to Linear Data as an External Source in Dremio

The CData JDBC Driver for Linear implements JDBC Standards and allows various applications, including Dremio, to work with live Linear 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 Linear data as a part of your enterprise data lake. This article describes how to connect to Linear data from Dremio as an External Source.

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

Prerequisites

This article assumes you are utilizing Docker to run Dremio. You can create a Docker container with the Dremio service using a command similar to the follow:

docker run -d --name dremio -p 9047:9047 -p 31010:31010 dremio/dremio-oss

Where dremio is the name of the container, 9047 is the container's port for the Dremio web interface and 31010 is the port that maps to the Dremio query service. dremio/dremio-oss specifies the image to use.

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

NOTE: The CData ARP Connectors are build to be compiled with Java 11. Be sure to install Java 11 and use the correct version. You can update your Java version using a command similar to the following:

sudo update-alternatives --config java

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 Linear to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/3rdparty. You can use commands similar to the following:

ARP Connector

docker cp PATH\TO\dremio-linear-plugin-{DREMIO_VERSION}.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/

JDBC Driver for Linear

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

Connecting to Linear

Linear will now appear as an External Source option in Dremio. The ARP Connector built uses a JDBC URL to connect to Linear 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 Linear JDBC Driver. Double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command line.

java -jar cdata.jdbc.linear.jar

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

You can authenticate to Linear with a personal API key or with OAuth 2.0. The API key is the simplest option for connecting with your own Linear account.

Authenticating with an API Key

Set the following connection properties:

• AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
• APIKey: A Linear personal API key.

To create a personal API key, log in to Linear, open Settings > Security & access > Personal API keys, select New API key, and create it. Copy the key immediately, because Linear shows it only once.

Authenticating with OAuth

OAuth requires a custom OAuth application registered in Linear (Settings > API > OAuth applications), which provides the OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret. Two flows are supported:

• Authorization code: Set AuthScheme to OAuth, InitiateOAuth to GETANDREFRESH, and provide OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and the CallbackURL defined in your application (e.g., http://localhost:33333). The driver opens Linear in your browser so you can grant access.
• Client credentials: Set AuthScheme to OAuthClient and provide OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret. This authenticates the application itself, with no browser interaction, and suits machine-to-machine integrations.

By default, the driver requests the read,write scopes. The driver refreshes the access token automatically when it expires.

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:linear:RTK=5246...;AuthScheme=APIKey;APIKey=myAPIKey;

Access Linear as an External Source

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

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

More Information & Free Trial

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