Connecting to JSON

The Sisense JSON connector is a certified connector that allows you to import data from JSON into Sisense via the Sisense generic JDBC connector. The JSON connector offers the most natural way to connect to integrate with JSON, and provides additional powerful features.

The support for the connector is provided by Sisense and will be assisted by the certification partner's support, if needed. For any support issues or additional functionality requests, contact your Sisense representative or open a request through the Sisense Help Center. For advanced inquiries specific to driver functionality, you can also contact the certification partner's support directly via support@cdata.com.

After you have downloaded the driver, you can connect through a connection string. The connection string is used to authenticate users who connect to JSON data. Once you have connected to JSON, you can import data.

This page describes how to download the JSON driver and deploy it, how to connect to JSON with a connection string, and more.

Downloading the JSON JDBC Driver

You can download the JSON JDBC driver here.

For a short video about downloading the driver, see below (the video uses the Box driver as an example).

Deploying the JSON JDBC Driver

Prerequisite: The install file (setup.jar) is a Java Application that requires Java 6 (J2SE) or above to run.

To install the driver, double-click the setup.jar file and proceed with the instructions in the installation wizard.

Depending on the machine on which you are accessing the Sisense application, install the driver in one of the following locations:

• When Sisense is installed on your local machine, deploy the driver locally.

• For a non-local installation (when accessing Sisense on a remote Windows server, or accessing the Sisense hosted cloud environment), select one of the below methods:

  • Deploy the driver on the Sisense server machine, and then perform all the authentication on the server machine.
  • Deploy the driver on your local machine (or any other machine, as convenient), perform all the authentication on that machine, and then copy the JAR file to the remote server. For detailed instructions, see Copying a CData JAR File Installed Locally to a Remote Server.

• If you are on a Linux deployment , deploy the driver on your local machine (or any other machine), perform all the authentication on that machine, and then copy the JAR file to this location:

  /opt/sisense/storage/connectors/jdbcdrivers/driver_name_folder.

  For detailed instructions, see Copying a CData JAR File Installed Locally to a Remote Server.

For a short video of the process, see below (the video uses the Box driver as an example).

JAVA Troubleshooting

If you do not have Java 6 installed, you may download it from here.

If your system is not set up to run Java applications, execute the following command: java -jar setup.jar

Connecting to JSON

To access JSON data from Sisense, you must create the connection string to be used in Sisense.

To create the connection string:

1. Open the lib directory for the connector. The default path is: C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for <Driver Name> 2019\lib.

2. Double-click the JAR file in the lib directory.

   

   Alternatively, to open the JAR file from the command line, enter the following command in the command prompt (change the driver name to your driver):

   cd C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for <Driver Name> 2019\lib

   Press Enter and then enter the following command (change the driver name to your driver):

   "C:\Program Files\Sisense\infra\jre\bin\java.exe" -jar cdata.jdbc.<Driver Name>.jar

   Press Enter again.

   Example:

   

   The Connection String Builder opens.

3. Click in the Value column and enter the property values required by your service provider. You can find a list of properties required by the commonly-used service providers here.

   Example:

   To connect to a local JSON file, a sample connection is URI=C:\folder1\file.json;

4. Click Test Connection.
5. When you connect, the driver opens the OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application. (Note that each application will display a different endpoint and messages.)
6. Go back to the Connection String Builder dialog and click OK in the Test Connection Successful message to close it.
7. Click Copy to Clipboard to obtain the connection string.

For a short video of the process, see below (the video uses the XML driver as an example):

You need to follow the above instructions only once, to retrieve the Access and Refresh tokens. Once the tokens have been retrieved, the driver will be refreshing them in the background when they expire, with no further involvement from you.

To help you create a connection string and test the connection, see Connection String Builder for Certified Connectors.

If you have any issues connecting to your data source, see Connecting to Custom Connectors with JDBC Drivers.

Adding JSON Tables to your ElastiCube

1. Open Sisense. (For a non-local installation, open Sisense on the hosted cloud environment.)

2. In the Data page, open an ElastiCube or create a new ElastiCube.

3. In the Model Editor, click . The Add Data dialog box is displayed.

   

4. Click Generic JDBC to open the JDBC settings.

   

5. In Connection String, paste the string you obtained above.
6. In JDBC JARs Folder, enter the name of the directory where the JSON JAR file is located (see Deploying the JSON JDBC Driver).
7. In Driver's Class Name, enter the following class name: cdata.jdbc.json.JSONDriver
8. Leave the User Name and Password blank.
9. Click Next. A list of tables in the database are displayed. All tables and views associated with the database will appear in a new window.
10. From the Tables list, select the relevant table or view you want to work with. You can click next to the relevant table or click Preview to see a preview of the data inside it.
11. (Optional) Click + to customize the data you want to import with SQL. See Importing Data with Custom Queries for more information.
12. After you have selected all the relevant tables, click Done. The tables are added to your data model.

For a short video of the process, see below (the video uses the XML driver as an example):

JSON Connector: Additional Resources

For the full documentation set for the JSON connector, click here.

For connection string options, click here.