Integrate Salesforce Data in the Pentaho Report Designer

The CData JDBC Driver for Salesforce data enables access to live data from dashboards and reports. This article shows how to connect to Salesforce data as a JDBC data source and publish reports based on Salesforce data in Pentaho.

Connect and Create a Report

1. Copy the JAR file of the driver, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory, to the \Report-Designer\lib\jdbc\ folder in the Pentaho directory.
2. Run the report-designer.bat file in the \Report-Designer\ folder to open the Report-Designer UI.

3. Create a new data source with the driver by clicking Data -> Add Data Source -> Advanced -> JDBC (Custom) and then creating a new Salesforce connection. In the resulting dialog, configure the connection properties as shown below.

   • Custom Connection URL property: Enter the JDBC URL. This starts with jdbc:salesforce: and is followed by a semicolon-separated list of connection properties.

     There are several authentication methods available for connecting to Salesforce: Login, OAuth, and SSO. The Login method requires you to have the username, password, and security token of the user.

     If you do not have access to the username and password or do not wish to require them, you can use OAuth authentication.

     SSO (single sign-on) can be used by setting the SSOProperties, SSOLoginUrl, and TokenUrl connection properties, which allow you to authenticate to an identity provider. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for more information.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.salesforce.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.

     Below is a typical JDBC URL:

     jdbc:salesforce:User=username;Password=password;SecurityToken=Your_Security_Token;
   • Custom Driver Class Name: Enter cdata.jdbc.salesforce.SalesforceDriver.
   • User Name: The username to authenticate with.
   • Password: The password to authenticate with.

Add Salesforce Data to a Report

You are now ready to create a report with Salesforce data.

1. Add the Salesforce source to your report: Click Data -> Add Data Source -> JDBC and select the data source.

2. Configure the query. This article uses the one below:

   SELECT Contact.Name, SUM(Account.AnnualRevenue) FROM Contact, Account GROUP BY Contact.Name
3. Drag a chart onto your report and double-click it to edit the chart. Run the report to display the chart. You can use the results of this query to create a simple chart for the Account table.
4. Finally, run the report to see the chart.