Create Informatica Mappings From/To a JDBC Data Source for ZenRows

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Create ZenRows data objects in Informatica using the standard JDBC connection process: Copy the JAR and then connect.

Informatica provides a powerful, elegant means of transporting and transforming your data. By utilizing the CData JDBC Driver for ZenRows, you are gaining access to a driver based on industry-proven standards that integrates seamlessly with Informatica's powerful data transportation and manipulation features. This tutorial shows how to transfer and browse ZenRows data in Informatica PowerCenter.

Deploy the Driver

To deploy the driver to the Informatica PowerCenter server, copy the CData JAR and .lic file, located in the lib subfolder in the installation directory, to the following folder: Informatica-installation-directory\services\shared\jars\thirdparty.

To work with ZenRows data in the Developer tool, you will need to copy the CData JAR and .lic file, located in the lib subfolder in the installation directory, into the following folders:

  • Informatica-installation-directory\client\externaljdbcjars
  • Informatica-installation-directory\externaljdbcjars

Create the JDBC Connection

Follow the steps below to connect from Informatica Developer:

  1. In the Connection Explorer pane, right-click your domain and click Create a Connection.
  2. In the New Database Connection wizard that is displayed, enter a name and Id for the connection and in the Type menu select JDBC.
  3. In the JDBC Driver Class Name property, enter:
    cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver
  4. In the Connection String property, enter the JDBC URL, using the connection properties for ZenRows.

    Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the ZenRows Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\ZenRows.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for ZenRows (see below).

    ZenRows API Profile Settings

    To use the ZenRows API, you need to obtain an API key from your ZenRows account. Navigate to the ZenRows dashboard at app.zenrows.com and copy your API key from the account settings.

    After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

    • AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
    • APIKey: Set this to your ZenRows API key.

    Built-in Connection String Designer

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

    
    java -jar cdata.jdbc.api.jar
    

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

    Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)

    A typical connection string is below:

    jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\ZenRows.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key';

Browse ZenRows Tables

After you have added the driver JAR to the classpath and created a JDBC connection, you can now access ZenRows entities in Informatica. Follow the steps below to connect to ZenRows and browse ZenRows tables:

  1. Connect to your repository.
  2. In the Connection Explorer, right-click the connection and click Connect.
  3. Clear the Show Default Schema Only option. The driver models ZenRows entities as relational tables. (Salesforce is shown.)

You can now browse ZenRows tables in the Data Viewer: Right-click the node for the table and then click Open. On the Data Viewer view, click Run.

Table data and metadata in the Data Viewer. (Salesforce is shown.)

Create ZenRows Data Objects

Follow the steps below to add ZenRows tables to your project:

  1. Select tables in ZenRows, then right-click a table in ZenRows, and click Add to Project.
  2. In the resulting dialog, select the option to create a data object for each resource.
  3. In the Select Location dialog, select your project.

    Create a Mapping

    Follow the steps below to add the ZenRows source to a mapping:

    1. In the Object Explorer, right-click your project and then click New -> Mapping.
    2. Expand the node for the ZenRows connection and then drag the data object for the table onto the editor.
    3. In the dialog that appears, select the Read option.
    The source ZenRows table in the mapping. (Salesforce is shown.)

    Follow the steps below to map ZenRows columns to a flat file:

    1. In the Object Explorer, right-click your project and then click New -> Data Object.
    2. Select Flat File Data Object -> Create as Empty -> Fixed Width.
    3. In the properties for the ZenRows object, select the rows you want, right-click, and then click copy. Paste the rows into the flat file properties.
    4. Drag the flat file data object onto the mapping. In the dialog that appears, select the Write option.
    5. Click and drag to connect columns.

    To transfer ZenRows data, right-click in the workspace and then click Run Mapping.

    The completed mapping. (Salesforce is shown.)

Ready to get started?

Connect to live data from ZenRows with the API Driver

Connect to ZenRows