Feed REST Data into FineReport

The CData JDBC Driver for REST fully implements the JDBC standard and can provide REST data connectivity to a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools and custom applications. In this article, we explain how to set REST data as JDBC data source in FineReport and view REST data as a table in the Report Designer.

Set Up a JDBC Data Source of REST Data

Follow the instruction below to set REST data as a FineReport database connection.

1. Copy the cdata.jdbc.rest.jar file from the lib folder in the CData JDBC Driver for REST installation directory to the lib folder of the FineReport installation directory. You will need to copy the cdata.jdbc.rest.lic file as well.
2. From the Server tab, select Define Data Connection, click to add a new connection, and click JDBC.

Next we will set up the data connection definition in the window.

1. Database: Others
2. JDBC Driver: cdata.jdbc.rest.RESTDriver
3. URL: A standard JDBC connection string using semicolon-separated connection properties.

   See the Getting Started chapter in the data provider documentation to authenticate to your data source: The data provider models REST APIs as bidirectional database tables and XML/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 Format to "XML" or "JSON" and 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 REST 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 REST 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.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.rest.jar

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

   When you configure the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

   A typical JDBC URL is below:

   jdbc:rest:DataModel=Relational;URI=C:/people.xml;Format=XML;
4. Click Connection pool attributes and set Test before getting connections to No.

Click Test connection to ensure you have configured the connection properly. With the connection to REST set up, you can use it as FineReport data source.

Select REST Data in the Report Designer.

1. Click to add a new template data set and select DB query to open the database query window.
2. Choose the JDBC connection that you created from the dropdown list.
3. The REST entities will appear as tables on the left pane.
4. Write a SELECT statement for the REST data tables and columns that you want to load.
5. Click preview and data is shown as table.

With these simple steps, REST can be used as a JDBC data source in FineReport.