Connect to Live PingOne Data in PostGresSQL Interface through CData Connect AI

There are a vast number of PostgreSQL clients available on the Internet. PostgreSQL is a popular interface for data access. When you pair PostgreSQL with CData Connect AI, you gain database-like access to live PingOne data from PostgreSQL. In this article, we walk through the process of connecting to PingOne data in Connect AI and establishing a connection between Connect AI and PostgreSQL using a TDS foreign data wrapper (FDW).

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL Server interface for PingOne, allowing you to query data from PingOne without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to PingOne, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested PingOne data quickly.

Connect to PingOne in Connect AI

CData Connect AI uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

2. Select "PingOne" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to PingOne.

   To connect to PingOne, configure these properties:

   • Region: The region where the data for your PingOne organization is being hosted.
   • AuthScheme: The type of authentication to use when connecting to PingOne.
   • Either WorkerAppEnvironmentId (required when using the default PingOne domain) or AuthorizationServerURL, configured as described below.

   Configuring WorkerAppEnvironmentId

   WorkerAppEnvironmentId is the ID of the PingOne environment in which your Worker application resides. This parameter is used only when the environment is using the default PingOne domain (auth.pingone). It is configured after you have created the custom OAuth application you will use to authenticate to PingOne, as described in Creating a Custom OAuth Application in the Help documentation.

   First, find the value for this property:

   1. From the home page of your PingOne organization, move to the navigation sidebar and click Environments.
   2. Find the environment in which you have created your custom OAuth/Worker application (usually Administrators), and click Manage Environment. The environment's home page displays.
   3. In the environment's home page navigation sidebar, click Applications.
   4. Find your OAuth or Worker application details in the list.
   5. Copy the value in the Environment ID field. It should look similar to:
      

      WorkerAppEnvironmentId='11e96fc7-aa4d-4a60-8196-9acf91424eca'

   Now set WorkerAppEnvironmentId to the value of the Environment ID field.

   Configuring AuthorizationServerURL

   AuthorizationServerURL is the base URL of the PingOne authorization server for the environment where your application is located. This property is only used when you have set up a custom domain for the environment, as described in the PingOne platform API documentation. See Custom Domains.

   Authenticating to PingOne with OAuth

   PingOne supports both OAuth and OAuthClient authentication. In addition to performing the configuration steps described above, there are two more steps to complete to support OAuth or OAuthCliet authentication:

   • Create and configure a custom OAuth application, as described in Creating a Custom OAuth Application in the Help documentation.
   • To ensure that the driver can access the entities in Data Model, confirm that you have configured the correct roles for the admin user/worker application you will be using, as described in Administrator Roles in the Help documentation.
   • Set the appropriate properties for the authscheme and authflow of your choice, as described in the following subsections.

   OAuth (Authorization Code grant)

   Set AuthScheme to OAuth.

   Desktop Applications

   Get and Refresh the OAuth Access Token

   After setting the following, you are ready to connect:

   • InitiateOAuth: GETANDREFRESH. To avoid the need to repeat the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken each time you connect, use InitiateOAuth.
   • OAuthClientId: The Client ID you obtained when you created your custom OAuth application.
   • OAuthClientSecret: The Client Secret you obtained when you created your custom OAuth application.
   • CallbackURL: The redirect URI you defined when you registered your custom OAuth application. For example: https://localhost:3333

   When you connect, the driver opens PingOne's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application. The driver then completes the OAuth process:

   1. The driver obtains an access token from PingOne and uses it to request data.
   2. The OAuth values are saved in the location specified in OAuthSettingsLocation, to be persisted across connections.

   The driver refreshes the access token automatically when it expires.

   For other OAuth methods, including Web Applications, Headless Machines, or Client Credentials Grant, refer to the Help documentation.

   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add PingOne Connection page and update the User-based 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.
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 PingOne data from PostgreSQL.

Build the TDS Foreign Data Wrapper

The Foreign Data Wrapper can be installed as an extension to PostgreSQL, without recompiling PostgreSQL. The tds_fdw extension is used as an example (https://github.com/tds-fdw/tds_fdw).

1. You can clone and build the git repository via something like the following view source:

   
   sudo apt-get install git
   git clone https://github.com/tds-fdw/tds_fdw.git
   cd tds_fdw
   make USE_PGXS=1
   sudo make USE_PGXS=1 install
   

   Note: If you have several PostgreSQL versions and you do not want to build for the default one, first locate where the binary for pg_config is, take note of the full path, and then append PG_CONFIG= after USE_PGXS=1 at the make commands.
2. After you finish the installation, then start the server:

   
   sudo service postgresql start
   

3. Then go inside the Postgres database

   
   psql -h localhost -U postgres -d postgres
   

   Note: Instead of localhost you can put the IP where your PostgreSQL is hosted.

Connect to PingOne data as a PostgreSQL Database and query the data!

After you have installed the extension, follow the steps below to start executing queries to PingOne data:

1. Log into your database.
2. Load the extension for the database:

   
   CREATE EXTENSION tds_fdw;
   

3. Create a server object for PingOne data:

   
   CREATE SERVER "PingOne1" FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER tds_fdw OPTIONS (servername'tds.cdata.com', port '14333', database 'PingOne1');
   

4. Configure user mapping with your email and Personal Access Token from your Connect AI account:

   
   CREATE USER MAPPING for postgres SERVER "PingOne1" OPTIONS (username '[email protected]', password 'your_personal_access_token' );
   

5. Create the local schema:

   
   CREATE SCHEMA "PingOne1";
   

6. Create a foreign table in your local database:

   
   #Using a table_name definition:
   
   CREATE FOREIGN TABLE "PingOne1".[CData].[Administrators].Users  (      
   id varchar,      
   Username varchar)      
   SERVER "PingOne1"
   OPTIONS(table_name 'PingOne.[CData].[Administrators].Users', row_estimate_method 'showplan_all');
   
   #Or using a schema_name and table_name definition:
   
   CREATE FOREIGN TABLE "PingOne1".[CData].[Administrators].Users (      
   id varchar,      
   Username varchar)      
   SERVER "PingOne1"
   OPTIONS (schema_name 'PingOne', table_name '[CData].[Administrators].Users', row_estimate_method 'showplan_all');
   
   #Or using a query definition:
   
   CREATE FOREIGN TABLE  "PingOne1".[CData].[Administrators].Users (
   id varchar,      
   Username varchar)      
   SERVER "PingOne1"
   OPTIONS (query 'SELECT * FROM PingOne.[CData].[Administrators].Users', row_estimate_method 'showplan_all');
   
   #Or setting a remote column name:
   
   CREATE FOREIGN TABLE "PingOne1".[CData].[Administrators].Users (
   id varchar,
   col2 varchar OPTIONS (column_name 'Username'))
   SERVER "PingOne1"
   OPTIONS (schema_name 'PingOne', table_name '[CData].[Administrators].Users', row_estimate_method 'showplan_all');
   

7. You can now execute read/write commands to PingOne:

   
   SELECT id, Username
   FROM "PingOne1".[CData].[Administrators].Users;
   

More Information & Free Trial

Now, you have created a simple query from live PingOne data. For more information on connecting to PingOne (and more than 200 other data sources), visit the Connect AI page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live PingOne data in PostgreSQL.