Analyze Suadeo Data in R via JDBC

Access Suadeo data with pure R script and standard SQL on any machine where R and Java can be installed. You can use the CData JDBC Driver for Suadeo and the RJDBC package to work with remote Suadeo data in R. By using the CData Driver, you are leveraging a driver written for industry-proven standards to access your data in the popular, open-source R language. This article shows how to use the driver to execute SQL queries to Suadeo and visualize Suadeo data by calling standard R functions.

Install R

You can match the driver's performance gains from multi-threading and managed code by running the multithreaded Microsoft R Open or by running open R linked with the BLAS/LAPACK libraries. This article uses Microsoft R Open 3.2.3, which is preconfigured to install packages from the Jan. 1, 2016 snapshot of the CRAN repository. This snapshot ensures reproducibility.

Load the RJDBC Package

To use the driver, download the RJDBC package. After installing the RJDBC package, the following line loads the package:

library(RJDBC)

Connect to Suadeo as a JDBC Data Source

You will need the following information to connect to Suadeo as a JDBC data source:

• Driver Class: Set this to cdata.jdbc.suadeo.SuadeoDriver
• Classpath: Set this to the location of the driver JAR. By default this is the lib subfolder of the installation folder.

The DBI functions, such as dbConnect and dbSendQuery, provide a unified interface for writing data access code in R. Use the following line to initialize a DBI driver that can make JDBC requests to the CData JDBC Driver for Suadeo:

driver <- JDBC(driverClass = "cdata.jdbc.suadeo.SuadeoDriver", classPath = "MyInstallationDir\lib\cdata.jdbc.suadeo.jar", identifier.quote = "'") 

You can now use DBI functions to connect to Suadeo and execute SQL queries. Initialize the JDBC connection with the dbConnect function.

The driver uses the OAuth 2.0 Resource Owner Password Credentials (ROPC) grant to authenticate to Suadeo. Authentication occurs directly using your credentials; there is no browser-based authorization flow or refresh token.

Set the following connection properties:

• URL: The base URL of your Suadeo instance.
• User: Your Suadeo username.
• Password: Your Suadeo password.
• AuthenticationName: The name identifier for the authentication configuration in your Suadeo instance. Different authentication names can be configured for different environments or use cases.

When you connect, the driver sends your credentials to the Suadeo OAuth token endpoint, receives an access token, and uses it for all subsequent requests. A new access token is obtained automatically when needed during the session.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

java -jar cdata.jdbc.suadeo.jar

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

Below is a sample dbConnect call, including a typical JDBC connection string:

conn <- dbConnect(driver,"jdbc:suadeo:URL=https://mysuadeoinstance;User=username;Password=password;AuthenticationName=your_auth_name;")

Schema Discovery

The driver models Suadeo APIs as relational tables, views, and stored procedures. Use the following line to retrieve the list of tables:

dbListTables(conn)

Execute SQL Queries

You can use the dbGetQuery function to execute any SQL query supported by the Suadeo API:

customers <- dbGetQuery(conn,"SELECT Id, Name FROM Customers WHERE Status = 'Active'")

You can view the results in a data viewer window with the following command:

View(customers)

Plot Suadeo Data

You can now analyze Suadeo data with any of the data visualization packages available in the CRAN repository. You can create simple bar plots with the built-in bar plot function:

par(las=2,ps=10,mar=c(5,15,4,2))
barplot(customers$Name, main="Suadeo Customers", names.arg = customers$Id, horiz=TRUE)