CData Connector Setup

The CData connector allows you to integrate CData into your data flow by pushing or pulling data from CData.

Key Capabilities

Support for 200+ data sources through CData drivers (ADO.NET and JDBC)
Standard database operations (Select, Lookup, Upsert, and Stored Procedure) for data manipulation
Caching for more performant queries
Ability to only process new or changed records
Flexible output formats (such as CSV and XML)

Follow the steps below to connect Arc to CData.

Installing the CData Driver

You must install the ADO.NET provider (.NET edition) or JDBC driver (Cross-Platform edition) for the appropriate data source before connecting to the data source.

Data sources referenced in the CData connector that require licensing should be licensed on the machine outside of Arc.

For step-by-step instructions on downloading and installing CData drivers, see the CData driver documentation.

ADO.NET

Follow these steps to download and run the CData installer for an ADO.NET provider:

Find the the desired data source in the list of CData data sources. Click the tile for a data source to bring up the page for that data source.
Find the top toolbar that lists the available driver types and click the ADO.NET tile.
Click Download on the resulting page.
Download the trial version (30 days of full functionality) or the full provider (requires a purchased license). Contact the Arc licensing team at arcsales@cdata.com to arrange for provider licensing.
Run the downloaded installer.
Restart the Arc server to allow the CData connector to detect the new provider.

JDBC

For the CData connector to recognize a JDBC driver, you must install it and place it in the lib folder of the Java server hosting Arc.

Find the desired data source in the list of CData data sources. Click the tile for a data source to bring up the page for that data source.
Find the top toolbar that lists the available driver types and click the JDBC tile.
Click Download on the next page.
Download the trial version (30 days of full functionality) or the full driver (requires a purchased license). Choose the download option that best matches your Arc setup (.exe for Windows, .zip for Linux, or .dmg for Mac). Contact the Arc licensing team at arcsales@cdata.com to arrange for driver licensing.
Navigate to the driver installation directory and find the driver .jar file and .lic (license) file inside the /lib/ folder.
Copy the driver .jar and .lic files into the /lib/ folder of the Java server hosting Arc.
Restart the Arc server to allow the CData connector to detect the new driver.

Establish a Connection

To allow Arc to use data from CData, you must enter the connection credentials into each instance of the CData connector. Connections to CData can not be re-used across multiple CData connectors. Follow these steps to establish a connection:

Drag the CData connector into an Arc flow and give it a name.
In the Connection portion of the Settings tab, select your Data Source from the drop-down menu.
Authentication steps vary depending on the selected data source:

If connection fields appear, enter the requested information in each one, then click Test Connection to ensure that Arc can connect to CData. If an error occurs, check all fields and try again.
If a Connect button appears, click it to sign into the driver using OAuth authentication.

Click Save Changes.

There are also data source-specific authentication and configuration options on the Advanced tab. They are not all described in this documentation, but you can find detailed information for your data source on the Online Help Files page of the CData website.

Select an Action

After establishing a connection to CData, you must choose the action that the CData connector will perform. The table below outlines each action and where it belongs in an Arc flow.

Action	Description	Position in Flow
Upsert	Inserts or updates CData data. By default, if a record already exists in CData, an update is performed on the existing data in CData using the values provided from the input.	End
Lookup	Retrieves values from CData and inserts those values into an already-existing Arc message in the flow. The Lookup Query determines what value the connector will retrieve from CData. It should be formatted as a SQL query against the CData tables.	Middle
Lookup Stored Procedure	Treats data coming into the connector as input for a stored procedure, then inserts the result into an existing Arc message in the flow. You can click the Show Sample Data button in the Test Lookup modal to provide sample inputs to the selected Stored Procedure and preview the results.	Middle
Select	Retrieves data from CData and brings it into Arc. You can use the Filter panel to add filters to the Select. These filters function similarly to WHERE clauses in SQL.	Beginning
Execute Stored Procedures	Treats data coming into the connector as input for a stored procedure, then passes the result down the flow. You can click the Show Sample Data button in the Test Execute Stored Procedure modal to provide sample inputs to the selected Stored Procedure and preview the results.	Middle

Advanced Tab

Many of the settings on the Advanced tab are dynamically loaded from the data source you are working with, so they are not covered in this documentation. You can find detailed information for your data source on the Online Help Files page of the CData website. The options described below are available for all data sources.

Advanced Settings

Advanced settings are common settings for connectors that rely on arbitrary database drivers (for example, Database, CData, and API connectors) in order to make connections to various data sources.

Setting	Description
Auto Truncate	When enabled, the connector automatically truncates any string or binary column values that are longer than the allowed limit.
Command Timeout	The command execution timeout duration in seconds.
Last Inserted Id Query	Provide a query to execute to retrieve the auto-increased Id for the last inserted record.
Log Level	The verbosity of logs generated by the connector. When you request support, set this to Debug.
Local File Scheme	A scheme for assigning filenames to messages that are output by the connector. You can use macros in your filenames dynamically to include information such as identifiers and timestamps. For more information, see Macros.
Log Messages	When checked, the connector keeps a copy of the message next to the logs for the message in the Logs directory. If you disable this, you might not be able to download a copy of the file from the Input or Output tabs.
Max Failed Records	The maximum number of records that are allowed to fail during insertion to allow processing to continue. The default value of 0 means that any errors cause the input message to be marked as an Error, and any uncommitted transactions are rolled back. A value of -1 means that all errors are ignored and the connector continues attempting to insert subsequent records. A positive value means that the connector continues attempting to insert records until the threshold is reached.
Output File Format	The format in which output data is represented. The default value (XML) causes the connector to output an XML file for every record that is processed, while optionally combining multiple records into a single data structure (depending on the value of Max Records). The CSV and TSV options output data in their respective file formats. This option is not available for complex table structures that include child tables.
Process Changes Interval Unit	Applicable to Select action only. When *Use column columnname* for processing new or changed records is checked in the Advanced portion of the Select Configuration section of the Settings tab, this controls how to interpret the Process Changes Interval** setting (for example, Hours, Days, or Weeks). See Only Process New or Changed Records for details on this and the following two settings.
Process Changes Interval	When *Use column columnname* for processing new or changed records is checked on the Select Configuration section of the Settings** tab, this controls how much historical data Arc attempts to process on the first attempt. For example, keeping the default of 180 (Days) means Arc only attempts to process data that has been created or modified in the last 180 days.
Process Changes Start Date	When *Use column columnname* for processing new or changed records is checked on the Select Configuration section of the Settings** tab, this controls the start date of the data to retrieve.
Reset History	Resets the cache stored when *Use column columnname* for processing new or changed records** is checked.
Batch Input Size	The maximum number of queries in a batch if batches are supported by the data source.
Batch Size	The maximum number of batch messages in a batch group.
Max Records	The maximum number of records to include in a single output message. Use -1 to indicate that all output records should be put in a single file, and use 0 to indicate that the connector can decide based on the configured Output File Format. By default, XML outputs one record per file, and flat file formats include all records in one file.
Transaction Size	The maximum number of queries in a transaction.
Processing Delay	The amount of time (in seconds) by which the processing of files placed in the Input folder is delayed. This is a legacy setting. Best practice is to use a File connector to manage local file systems instead of this setting.
Insert Empty	When left unchecked (the default), the connector skips empty XML elements when building INSERT and UPDATE statements. This causes the database to use the default column value for INSERT statements, and for column values to remain unchanged for UPDATE statements. When checked, the connector includes empty XML elements in INSERT and UPDATE statements, using an empty string as the value for the column.
Insert Null	When left unchecked (the default), the connector skips null XML elements (indicated by the `xsi:nil="true"` attribute) when building INSERT and UPDATE statements. This causes the database to use the default column value for INSERT statements, and for column values to remain unchanged for UPDATE statements. When checked, the connector includes null XML elements in INSERT and UPDATE statements, using null as the value for the column. The cases which are treated as null are: `Not exist`, `<element/>`, `<element xsi:nil="true"/>`, `<element xsi:nil="true"></element>`, `<element null="true"/>`, and `<element null="true"></element>`.
Lookup Caching	Check Enable lookup cache to perform queries against a local cache before they are executed directly against the data source (when no records are returned from the cache). When left unchecked (the default), queries are performed directly against the data source. The following lookup cache options are only available when Enable lookup cache is checked.
Lookup Cache Provider	Specify which driver to use to facilitate the connection to the cache database.
Lookup Cache Connection String	When set, the connector uses the database specified here for caching.
Lookup Cache Tolerance	Specify how often the connector should query the data source to refresh the cache. Used in conjunction with the Tolerance Unit option.
Lookup Cache Tolerance Unit	Select Minute, Hour, or Day.
Log Subfolder Scheme	Instructs the connector to group files in the `Logs` folder according to the selected interval. For example, the Weekly option instructs the connector to create a new subfolder each week and store all logs for the week in that folder. The blank setting tells the connector to save all logs directly in the `Logs` folder. For connectors that process many transactions, using subfolders can help keep logs organized and improve performance.

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous settings are for specific use cases.

Setting	Description
Other Settings	Enables you to configure hidden connector settings in a semicolon-separated list (for example, `setting1=value1;setting2=value2`). Normal connector use cases and functionality should not require the use of these settings.

Proxy Settings

Automation Tab

Automation Settings

Settings related to the automatic processing of files by the connector.

Setting	Description
Send	Whether files arriving at the connector are automatically sent.
Retry Interval	The number of minutes before a failed send is retried.
Max Attempts	The maximum number of times the connector processes the file. Success is measured based on a successful server acknowledgement. If you set this to 0, the connector retries the file indefinitely.
Receive	Whether the connector should automatically query the data source.
Interval	The interval between automatic query attempts.
Minutes Past the Hour	The minutes offset for an hourly schedule. Only applicable when the interval setting above is set to Hourly. For example, if this value is set to 5, the automation service downloads at 1:05, 2:05, 3:05, etc.
Time	The time of day that the attempt should occur. Only applicable when the interval setting above is set to Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
Day	The day on which the attempt should occur. Only applicable when the interval setting above is set to Weekly or Monthly.
Minutes	The number of minutes to wait before attempting the download. Only applicable when the interval setting above is set to Minute.
Cron Expression	A five-position string representing a cron expression that determines when the attempt should occur. Only applicable when the interval setting above is set to Advanced.

Performance

Settings related to the allocation of resources to the connector.

Setting	Description
Max Workers	The maximum number of worker threads consumed from the threadpool to process files on this connector. If set, this overrides the default setting on the Performance Settings portion of the Advanced Settings page.
Max Files	The maximum number of files sent by each thread assigned to the connector. If set, this overrides the default setting on the Performance Settings portion of the Advanced Settings page.

Alerts Tab

Settings related to configuring alerts. Before you can execute Service Level Agreements (SLAs), you need to set up email alerts for notifications. By default, Arc uses the global settings on the Alerts tab. To use other settings for this connector, toggle Override global setting on. By default, error alerts are enabled, which means that emails are sent whenever there is an error. To turn them off, uncheck the Enable checkbox. Enter a Subject (mandatory), then optionally enter a comma-separated list of Recipient emails.

SLAs Tab

Settings related to configuring Service Level Agreements (SLAs). SLAs enable you to configure the volume you expect connectors in your flow to send or receive, and to set the time frame in which you expect that volume to be met. Arc sends emails to warn the user when an SLA is not met, and marks the SLA as At Risk, which means that if the SLA is not met soon, it will be marked as Violated. This gives the user an opportunity to step in and determine the reasons the SLA is not being met, and to take appropriate actions. If the SLA is still not met at the end of the at-risk time period, the SLA is marked as violated, and the user is notified again. To define an SLA, toggle Expected Volume on, then click the Settings tab.

If your connector has separate send and receive actions, use the radio buttons to specify which direction the SLA pertains to.
In the Expect at least portion of the window:
- Set the minimum number of transactions you expect to be processed (the volume)
- Use the Every fields to specify the time frame
- Indicate when the SLA should go into effect. If you choose Starting on, complete the date and time fields.
- Check the boxes for the days of the week that you want the SLA to be in effect. Use the dropdown to choose Everyday if necessary.
In the Set status to ‘At Risk’ portion of the window, specify when the SLA should be marked as at risk.
- By default, notifications are not sent until an SLA is in violation. To change that, check Send an ‘At Risk’ notification.

The following example shows an SLA configured for a connector that expects to receive 1000 files every day Monday-Friday. An at-risk notification is sent 1 hour before the end of the time period if the 1000 files have not been received.

You can turn off SLA alerts if necessary. This can be useful during maintenance windows. Click Settings on the navbar, then navigate to Alerts > General Alerts. Click the tablet and pencil icon to edit, and uncheck the SLA Alerts setting.

Macros

Using macros in file naming strategies can enhance organizational efficiency and contextual understanding of data. By incorporating macros into filenames, you can dynamically include relevant information such as identifiers, timestamps, and header information, providing valuable context to each file. This helps ensure that filenames reflect details important to your organization. Arc supports these macros, which all use the following syntax: %Macro%.

Macro	Description
ConnectorID	Evaluates to the ConnectorID of the connector.
Ext	Evaluates to the file extension of the file currently being processed by the connector.
Filename	Evaluates to the filename (extension included) of the file currently being processed by the connector.
FilenameNoExt	Evaluates to the filename (without the extension) of the file currently being processed by the connector.
MessageId	Evaluates to the MessageId of the message being output by the connector.
RegexFilename:pattern	Applies a RegEx pattern to the filename of the file currently being processed by the connector.
Header:headername	Evaluates to the value of a targeted header (`headername`) on the current message being processed by the connector.
LongDate	Evaluates to the current datetime of the system in long-handed format (for example, Wednesday, January 24, 2024).
ShortDate	Evaluates to the current datetime of the system in a yyyy-MM-dd format (for example, 2024-01-24).
DateFormat:format	Evaluates to the current datetime of the system in the specified format (`format`). See Sample Date Formats for the available datetime formats
Vault:vaultitem	Evaluates to the value of the specified vault item.

Examples

Some macros, such as %Ext% and %ShortDate%, do not require an argument, but others do. All macros that take an argument use the following syntax: %Macro:argument% Here are some examples of the macros that take an argument:

%Header:headername%: Where headername is the name of a header on a message.
%Header:mycustomheader% resolves to the value of the mycustomheader header set on the input message.
%Header:ponum% resolves to the value of the ponum header set on the input message.
%RegexFilename:pattern%: Where pattern is a regex pattern. For example, %RegexFilename:^([\w][A-Za-z]+)% matches and resolves to the first word in the filename and is case insensitive (test_file.xml resolves to test).
%Vault:vaultitem%: Where vaultitem is the name of an item in the vault. For example, %Vault:companyname% resolves to the value of the companyname item stored in the vault.
%DateFormat:format%: Where format is an accepted date format (see Sample Date Formats for details). For example, %DateFormat:yyyy-MM-dd-HH-mm-ss-fff% resolves to the date and timestamp on the file.

You can also create more sophisticated macros, as shown in the following examples:

Combining multiple macros in one filename: %DateFormat:yyyy-MM-dd-HH-mm-ss-fff%%EXT%
Including text outside of the macro: MyFile_%DateFormat:yyyy-MM-dd-HH-mm-ss-fff%
Including text within the macro: %DateFormat:'DateProcessed-'yyyy-MM-dd_'TimeProcessed-'HH-mm-ss%

Getting Started

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Mapping

APIs and Automation

How-To Guides

Scripting

Software License and Third-Party Copyrights

Key Capabilities

Installing the CData Driver

ADO.NET

JDBC

Establish a Connection

Select an Action

Advanced Tab

Advanced Settings

Miscellaneous

Proxy Settings

Automation Tab

Automation Settings

Performance

Alerts Tab

SLAs Tab

Macros

Examples

​Key Capabilities

​Installing the CData Driver

​ADO.NET

​JDBC

​Establish a Connection

​Select an Action

​Advanced Tab

​Advanced Settings

​Miscellaneous

​Proxy Settings

​Automation Tab

​Automation Settings

​Performance

​Alerts Tab

​SLAs Tab

​Macros

​Examples

Key Capabilities

Installing the CData Driver

ADO.NET

JDBC

Establish a Connection

Select an Action

Advanced Tab

Advanced Settings

Miscellaneous

Proxy Settings

Automation Tab

Automation Settings

Performance

Alerts Tab

SLAs Tab

Macros

Examples