How to connect and process Reckon Accounts Hosted Data from Azure Databricks

Databricks is a cloud-based service that provides data processing capabilities through Apache Spark. When paired with the CData JDBC Driver, customers can use Databricks to perform data engineering and data science on live Reckon Accounts Hosted data. This article walks through hosting the CData JDBC Driver in Azure, as well as connecting to and processing live Reckon Accounts Hosted data in Databricks.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData JDBC driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Reckon Accounts Hosted data. When you issue complex SQL queries to Reckon Accounts Hosted, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Reckon Accounts Hosted and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (often SQL functions and JOIN operations). Its built-in dynamic metadata querying allows you to work with and analyze Reckon Accounts Hosted data using native data types.

Install the CData JDBC Driver in Azure

To work with live Reckon Accounts Hosted data in Databricks, install the driver on your Azure cluster.

1. Navigate to your Databricks administration screen and select the target cluster.
2. On the Libraries tab, click "Install New."
3. Select "DBFS" as the Library Source and "Jar" as the Library Type.
4. Upload the JDBC JAR file (cdata.jdbc.reckonaccountshosted.jar) from the installation location (typically C:\Program Files\CData[product_name]\lib).

Connect to Reckon Accounts Hosted from Databricks

With the JAR file installed, we are ready to work with live Reckon Accounts Hosted data in Databricks. Start by creating a new notebook in your workspace. Name the workbook, make sure Python is selected as the language (which should be by default), click on Connect and under General Compute select the cluster where you installed the JDBC driver (should be selected by default).

Configure the Connection to Reckon Accounts Hosted

Connect to Reckon Accounts Hosted by referencing the class for the JDBC Driver and constructing a connection string to use in the JDBC URL. Additionally, you will need to set the RTK property in the JDBC URL (unless you are using a Beta driver). You can view the licensing file included in the installation for information on how to set this property.

driver = "cdata.jdbc.reckonaccountshosted.ReckonAccountsHostedDriver"
url = "jdbc:reckonaccountshosted:RTK=5246...;SubscriptionKey=my_subscription_key;CountryVersion=2021.R2.AU;CompanyFile=Q:/CompanyName.QBW;User=my_user;Password=my_password;CallbackURL=http://localhost:33333;OAuthClientId=my_oauth_client_id;OAuthClientSecret=my_oauth_client_secret;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH"

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

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

The connector makes requests to Reckon Accounts Hosted through OAuth. Specify the following connection properties:

• SubscriptionKey: Required. You get this value when you created your developer account.
• CountryVersion: Defaults to 2021.R2.AU.
• CompanyFile: Required. The path to the company file.
• User: Required. The username of the company file.
• Password: Required. The password of the company file.
• InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH to let the driver handle access tokens.
• CallbackURL: The redirectURI of your Custom OAuth App.
• OAuthClientId: The client id of your Custom OAuth App.
• OAuthClientSecret: The client secret of your Custom OAuth App.

CData provides an embedded OAuth application that simplifies OAuth desktop authentication. See the Help documentation for information on other OAuth authentication methods (web, headless, etc.), creating custom OAuth applications, and reasons for doing so.

Load Reckon Accounts Hosted Data

Once the connection is configured, you can load Reckon Accounts Hosted data as a dataframe using the CData JDBC Driver and the connection information.

remote_table = spark.read.format ( "jdbc" ) \
	.option ( "driver" , driver) \
	.option ( "url" , url) \
	.option ( "dbtable" , "Accounts") \
	.load ()

Display Reckon Accounts Hosted Data

Check the loaded Reckon Accounts Hosted data by calling the display function.

display (remote_table.select ("Name"))

Analyze Reckon Accounts Hosted Data in Azure Databricks

If you want to process data with Databricks SparkSQL, register the loaded data as a Temp View.

remote_table.createOrReplaceTempView ( "SAMPLE_VIEW" )

The SparkSQL below retrieves the Reckon Accounts Hosted data for analysis.

result = spark.sql("SELECT Name, Balance FROM SAMPLE_VIEW WHERE IsActive = 'true'")

The data from Reckon Accounts Hosted is only available in the target notebook. If you want to use it with other users, save it as a table.

remote_table.write.format ( "parquet" ) .saveAsTable ( "SAMPLE_TABLE" )

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Reckon Accounts Hosted and start working with your live Reckon Accounts Hosted data in Azure Databricks. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.