Integrate Snowflake Data in the Pentaho Report Designer

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

Getting Started

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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 Snowflake connection. In the resulting dialog, configure the connection properties as shown below.

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

     To connect to Snowflake:

     1. Set User and Password to your Snowflake credentials and set the AuthScheme property to PASSWORD or OKTA.
     2. Set URL to the URL of the Snowflake instance (i.e.: https://myaccount.snowflakecomputing.com).
     3. Set Warehouse to the Snowflake warehouse.
     4. (Optional) Set Account to your Snowflake account if your URL does not conform to the format above.
     5. (Optional) Set Database and Schema to restrict the tables and views exposed.

     See the Getting Started guide in the CData driver documentation for more information.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.snowflake.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:snowflake:User=Admin;Password=test123;Server=localhost;Database=Northwind;Warehouse=TestWarehouse;Account=Tester1;
   • Custom Driver Class Name: Enter cdata.jdbc.snowflake.SnowflakeDriver.
   • User Name: The username to authenticate with.
   • Password: The password to authenticate with.

Add Snowflake Data to a Report

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

1. Add the Snowflake 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 Id, ProductName FROM Products
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 Products table.
4. Finally, run the report to see the chart.