MarkLogic Connection Details¶

Introduction¶

Connector Version

This documentation is based on version 23.0.8895 of the connector.

Get Started¶

MarkLogic Version Support

The MarkLogic connector connects with the MarkLogic Web Services API.

Establish a Connection¶

Connect to MarkLogic¶

Pick an API¶

The MarkLogic connector offers access to both the REST and ODBC APIs for MarkLogic. Please see Picking the right API for a discussion on which API is right for your use case.

Connection Details¶

Regardless of which API you are connecting to, you will need to include the following connection details:

• Server - The server being connected to.
• Database - (Optional) The specific database to connect to.
• Port - (Optional) The specific port to use if the default port for the selected API is not being used default.

Create an ODBC Server¶

If connecting to the ODBC API, please follow the guide in MarkLogic's official website on how to create an ODBC Server, https://docs.marklogic.com/guide/admin/odbc.

Authenticate to MarkLogic¶

To authenticate to MarkLogic, specify the following connection properties:

• User - The user to authenticate as.
• Password - The password of the user.

Pick the right API¶

This section outlines the differences between the ODBC server API and the REST one. The MarkLogic connector offers the possibility to connect to either of the APIs using the connection property API. Both APIs model the same data model (catalogs, schemas, views, and columns).

The ODBC Server API¶

The ODBC version connects with a PostgreSQL front end on the client by means of the PostgreSQL message protocol. Everything is offloaded to the API. This API is more performant than the REST API. By default, the MarkLogic connector will use the ODBC server API. SupportEnhancedSQL is not supported when the ODBC API is selected.

The REST API¶

The REST API uses the Optic API to query documents. Unlike the ODBC server, some operations are not supported server-side. Some of these operations include formula columns without namespaces, group by, and having expressions in some instances. These operations are instead handled on the client side. The property SupportEnhancedSQL can be used to control this behaviour.

Important Notes¶

Configuration Files and Their Paths¶

• All references to adding configuration files and their paths refer to files and locations on the Harmony Agent where the connector is installed. These paths are to be adjusted as appropriate depending on the agent and the operating system. If multiple agents are used in an agent group, identical files will be required on each agent.

Advanced Features¶

This section details a selection of advanced features of the MarkLogic connector.

User Defined Views

The connector allows you to define virtual tables, called user defined views, whose contents are decided by a pre-configured query. These views are useful when you cannot directly control queries being issued to the drivers. See User Defined Views for an overview of creating and configuring custom views.

SSL Configuration

Use SSL Configuration to adjust how connector handles TLS/SSL certificate negotiations. You can choose from various certificate formats; see the SSLServerCert property under "Connection String Options" for more information.

Proxy

To configure the connector using private agent proxy settings, select the Use Proxy Settings checkbox on the connection configuration screen.

Query Processing

The connector offloads as much of the SELECT statement processing as possible to MarkLogic and then processes the rest of the query in memory (client-side).

See Query Processing for more information.

User Defined Views¶

The MarkLogic connector allows you to define a virtual table whose contents are decided by a pre-configured query. These are called User Defined Views, which are useful in situations where you cannot directly control the query being issued to the driver, e.g. when using the driver from Jitterbit. The User Defined Views can be used to define predicates that are always applied. If you specify additional predicates in the query to the view, they are combined with the query already defined as part of the view.

There are two ways to create user defined views:

• Create a JSON-formatted configuration file defining the views you want.
• DDL statements.

Define Views Using a Configuration File¶

User Defined Views are defined in a JSON-formatted configuration file called UserDefinedViews.json. The connector automatically detects the views specified in this file.

You can also have multiple view definitions and control them using the UserDefinedViews connection property. When you use this property, only the specified views are seen by the connector.

This User Defined View configuration file is formatted as follows:

• Each root element defines the name of a view.
• Each root element contains a child element, called query, which contains the custom SQL query for the view.

For example:

{
    "MyView": {
        "query": "SELECT * FROM [].[main].Customer WHERE MyColumn = 'value'"
    },
    "MyView2": {
        "query": "SELECT * FROM MyTable WHERE Id IN (1,2,3)"
    }
}

Use the UserDefinedViews connection property to specify the location of your JSON configuration file. For example:

"UserDefinedViews", "C:\Users\yourusername\Desktop\tmp\UserDefinedViews.json"

Define Views Using DDL Statements¶

The connector is also capable of creating and altering the schema via DDL Statements such as CREATE LOCAL VIEW, ALTER LOCAL VIEW, and DROP LOCAL VIEW.

Create a View¶

To create a new view using DDL statements, provide the view name and query as follows:

CREATE LOCAL VIEW [MyViewName] AS SELECT * FROM Customers LIMIT 20;

If no JSON file exists, the above code creates one. The view is then created in the JSON configuration file and is now discoverable. The JSON file location is specified by the UserDefinedViews connection property.

Alter a View¶

To alter an existing view, provide the name of an existing view alongside the new query you would like to use instead:

ALTER LOCAL VIEW [MyViewName] AS SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE TimeModified > '3/1/2020';

The view is then updated in the JSON configuration file.

Drop a View¶

To drop an existing view, provide the name of an existing schema alongside the new query you would like to use instead.

DROP LOCAL VIEW [MyViewName]

This removes the view from the JSON configuration file. It can no longer be queried.

Schema for User Defined Views¶

User Defined Views are exposed in the UserViews schema by default. This is done to avoid the view's name clashing with an actual entity in the data model. You can change the name of the schema used for UserViews by setting the UserViewsSchemaName property.

Work with User Defined Views¶

For example, a SQL statement with a User Defined View called UserViews.RCustomers only lists customers in Raleigh:

SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE City = 'Raleigh';

An example of a query to the driver:

SELECT * FROM UserViews.RCustomers WHERE Status = 'Active';

Resulting in the effective query to the source:

SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE City = 'Raleigh' AND Status = 'Active';

That is a very simple example of a query to a User Defined View that is effectively a combination of the view query and the view definition. It is possible to compose these queries in much more complex patterns. All SQL operations are allowed in both queries and are combined when appropriate.

SSL Configuration¶

Customize the SSL Configuration¶

By default, the connector attempts to negotiate SSL/TLS by checking the server's certificate against the system's trusted certificate store.

To specify another certificate, see the SSLServerCert property for the available formats to do so.

Client SSL Certificates¶

The MarkLogic connector also supports setting client certificates. Set the following to connect using a client certificate.

• SSLClientCert: The name of the certificate store for the client certificate.
• SSLClientCertType: The type of key store containing the TLS/SSL client certificate.
• SSLClientCertPassword: The password for the TLS/SSL client certificate.
• SSLClientCertSubject: The subject of the TLS/SSL client certificate.

Data Model¶

The connector models template views created in the MarkLogic server as views. These definitions are dynamically retrieved. Any changes you make, such as adding a new table, or adding new columns, or changing the data type of a column, will immediately be reflected when you connect using the connector.

Creating Template Views

1. Navigate to the query console, http://Server:8000/qconsole, where Server is the DSN of the Server MarkLogic is hosted.
2. Create a new query tab.
3. Set the Query Type to XQuery.
4. From there, follow the guide to create a template view from the official MarkLogic website here: https://docs.marklogic.com/guide/sql/creating-template-views.

System Tables¶

You can query the system tables described in this section to access schema information, information on data source functionality, and batch operation statistics.

Schema Tables¶

The following tables return database metadata for MarkLogic:

• sys_catalogs: Lists the available databases.
• sys_schemas: Lists the available schemas.
• sys_tables: Lists the available tables and views.
• sys_tablecolumns: Describes the columns of the available tables and views.
• sys_procedures: Describes the available stored procedures.
• sys_procedureparameters: Describes stored procedure parameters.
• sys_keycolumns: Describes the primary and foreign keys.
• sys_indexes: Describes the available indexes.

Data Source Tables¶

The following tables return information about how to connect to and query the data source:

• sys_connection_props: Returns information on the available connection properties.
• sys_sqlinfo: Describes the SELECT queries that the connector can offload to the data source.

Query Information Tables¶

The following table returns query statistics for data modification queries:

• sys_identity: Returns information about batch operations or single updates.

sys_catalogs¶

Lists the available databases.

The following query retrieves all databases determined by the connection string:

SELECT * FROM sys_catalogs

Columns¶

sys_schemas¶

Lists the available schemas.

The following query retrieves all available schemas:

SELECT * FROM sys_schemas

Columns¶

sys_tables¶

Lists the available tables.

The following query retrieves the available tables and views:

SELECT * FROM sys_tables

Columns¶

sys_tablecolumns¶

Describes the columns of the available tables and views.

The following query returns the columns and data types for the [].[main].Customer table:

SELECT ColumnName, DataTypeName FROM sys_tablecolumns WHERE TableName='Customer' AND CatalogName='' AND SchemaName='main'

Columns¶

sys_procedures¶

Lists the available stored procedures.

The following query retrieves the available stored procedures:

SELECT * FROM sys_procedures

Columns¶

sys_procedureparameters¶

Describes stored procedure parameters.

The following query returns information about all of the input parameters for the SelectEntries stored procedure:

SELECT * FROM sys_procedureparameters WHERE ProcedureName='SelectEntries' AND Direction=1 OR Direction=2

Columns¶

sys_keycolumns¶

Describes the primary and foreign keys.

The following query retrieves the primary key for the [].[main].Customer table:

SELECT * FROM sys_keycolumns WHERE IsKey='True' AND TableName='Customer' AND CatalogName='' AND SchemaName='main'

Columns¶

sys_foreignkeys¶

Describes the foreign keys.

The following query retrieves all foreign keys which refer to other tables:

SELECT * FROM sys_foreignkeys WHERE ForeignKeyType = 'FOREIGNKEY_TYPE_IMPORT'

Columns¶

sys_primarykeys¶

Describes the primary keys.

The following query retrieves the primary keys from all tables and views:

SELECT * FROM sys_primarykeys

Columns¶

sys_indexes¶

Describes the available indexes. By filtering on indexes, you can write more selective queries with faster query response times.

The following query retrieves all indexes that are not primary keys:

SELECT * FROM sys_indexes WHERE IsPrimary='false'

Columns¶

sys_connection_props¶

Returns information on the available connection properties and those set in the connection string.

When querying this table, the config connection string should be used:

jdbc:cdata:marklogic:config:

This connection string enables you to query this table without a valid connection.

The following query retrieves all connection properties that have been set in the connection string or set through a default value:

SELECT * FROM sys_connection_props WHERE Value <> ''

Columns¶

sys_sqlinfo¶

Describes the SELECT query processing that the connector can offload to the data source.

Discovering the Data Source's SELECT Capabilities¶

Below is an example data set of SQL capabilities. Some aspects of SELECT functionality are returned in a comma-separated list if supported; otherwise, the column contains NO.

The following query retrieves the operators that can be used in the WHERE clause:

SELECT * FROM sys_sqlinfo WHERE Name = 'SUPPORTED_OPERATORS'

Note that individual tables may have different limitations or requirements on the WHERE clause; refer to the Data Model section for more information.

Columns¶

sys_identity¶

Returns information about attempted modifications.

The following query retrieves the Ids of the modified rows in a batch operation:

SELECT * FROM sys_identity

Columns¶

sys_information¶

Describes the available system information.

The following query retrieves all columns:

SELECT * FROM sys_information

Columns¶

Advanced Configurations Properties¶

The advanced configurations properties are the various options that can be used to establish a connection. This section provides a complete list of the options you can configure. Click the links for further details.

Authentication

SSL

Schema

Miscellaneous

Authentication¶

This section provides a complete list of authentication properties you can configure.

User¶

The MarkLogic user account used to authenticate.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

Together with Password, this field is used to authenticate against the MarkLogic server.

Password¶

The password used to authenticate the user.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The User and Password are together used to authenticate with the server.

Server¶

The address of the MarkLogic server to which you are connecting.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The address of the MarkLogic server to which you are connecting.

Port¶

The ODBC Server port for the MarkLogic.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The ODBC Server port for the MarkLogic. If not specified the default port number 5432 is used for the ODBC server. If API=REST, then by default, port number 8000 will be used.

Database¶

The name of the MarkLogic database to connect to.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The name of the MarkLogic database to connect to.

API¶

Specifies the API which will be used by the provider to query data.

Possible Values¶

ODBC, REST

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

ODBC

Remarks¶

Specifies the API which will be used by the provider to query data. Valid values are ODBC (to connect to the ODBC server) and REST (to connect to the REST API).

UseSSL¶

This field sets whether SSL is enabled.

Data Type¶

bool

Default Value¶

false

Remarks¶

This field sets whether the connector will attempt to negotiate TLS/SSL connections to the server. By default, the connector checks the server's certificate against the system's trusted certificate store. To specify another certificate, set SSLServerCert.

SSL¶

This section provides a complete list of SSL properties you can configure.

SSLClientCert¶

The TLS/SSL client certificate store for SSL Client Authentication (2-way SSL).

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The name of the certificate store for the client certificate.

The SSLClientCertType field specifies the type of the certificate store specified by SSLClientCert. If the store is password protected, specify the password in SSLClientCertPassword.

SSLClientCert is used in conjunction with the SSLClientCertSubject field in order to specify client certificates. If SSLClientCert has a value, and SSLClientCertSubject is set, a search for a certificate is initiated. See SSLClientCertSubject for more information.

Designations of certificate stores are platform-dependent.

The following are designations of the most common User and Machine certificate stores in Windows:

In Java, the certificate store normally is a file containing certificates and optional private keys.

When the certificate store type is PFXFile, this property must be set to the name of the file. When the type is PFXBlob, the property must be set to the binary contents of a PFX file (for example, PKCS12 certificate store).

SSLClientCertType¶

The type of key store containing the TLS/SSL client certificate.

Possible Values¶

USER, MACHINE, PFXFILE, PFXBLOB, JKSFILE, JKSBLOB, PEMKEY_FILE, PEMKEY_BLOB, PUBLIC_KEY_FILE, PUBLIC_KEY_BLOB, SSHPUBLIC_KEY_FILE, SSHPUBLIC_KEY_BLOB, P7BFILE, PPKFILE, XMLFILE, XMLBLOB

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

USER

Remarks¶

This property can take one of the following values:

SSLClientCertPassword¶

The password for the TLS/SSL client certificate.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

If the certificate store is of a type that requires a password, this property is used to specify that password to open the certificate store.

SSLClientCertSubject¶

The subject of the TLS/SSL client certificate.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

*

Remarks¶

When loading a certificate the subject is used to locate the certificate in the store.

If an exact match is not found, the store is searched for subjects containing the value of the property. If a match is still not found, the property is set to an empty string, and no certificate is selected.

The special value "*" picks the first certificate in the certificate store.

The certificate subject is a comma separated list of distinguished name fields and values. For example, "CN=www.server.com, OU=test, C=US, E=support@company.com". The common fields and their meanings are shown below.

If a field value contains a comma, it must be quoted.

SSLServerCert¶

The certificate to be accepted from the server when connecting using TLS/SSL.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

If using a TLS/SSL connection, this property can be used to specify the TLS/SSL certificate to be accepted from the server. Any other certificate that is not trusted by the machine is rejected.

This property can take the following forms:

If not specified, any certificate trusted by the machine is accepted.

Certificates are validated as trusted by the machine based on the System's trust store. The trust store used is the 'javax.net.ssl.trustStore' value specified for the system. If no value is specified for this property, Java's default trust store is used (for example, JAVA_HOME\lib\security\cacerts).

Use '*' to signify to accept all certificates. Note that this is not recommended due to security concerns.

Schema¶

This section provides a complete list of schema properties you can configure.

Location¶

A path to the directory that contains the schema files defining tables, views, and stored procedures.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

%APPDATA%\MarkLogic Data Provider\Schema

Remarks¶

The path to a directory which contains the schema files for the connector (.rsd files for tables and views, .rsb files for stored procedures). The folder location can be a relative path from the location of the executable. The Location property is only needed if you want to customize definitions (for example, change a column name, ignore a column, and so on) or extend the data model with new tables, views, or stored procedures.

If left unspecified, the default location is "%APPDATA%\MarkLogic Data Provider\Schema" with %APPDATA% being set to the user's configuration directory:

BrowsableSchemas¶

This property restricts the schemas reported to a subset of the available schemas. For example, BrowsableSchemas=SchemaA,SchemaB,SchemaC.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

Listing the schemas from databases can be expensive. Providing a list of schemas in the connection string improves the performance.

Tables¶

This property restricts the tables reported to a subset of the available tables. For example, Tables=TableA,TableB,TableC.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

Listing the tables from some databases can be expensive. Providing a list of tables in the connection string improves the performance of the connector.

This property can also be used as an alternative to automatically listing views if you already know which ones you want to work with and there would otherwise be too many to work with.

Specify the tables you want in a comma-separated list. Each table should be a valid SQL identifier with any special characters escaped using square brackets, double-quotes or backticks. For example, Tables=TableA,[TableB/WithSlash],WithCatalog.WithSchema.`TableC With Space`.

Note that when connecting to a data source with multiple schemas or catalogs, you will need to provide the fully qualified name of the table in this property, as in the last example here, to avoid ambiguity between tables that exist in multiple catalogs or schemas.

Views¶

Restricts the views reported to a subset of the available tables. For example, Views=ViewA,ViewB,ViewC.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

Listing the views from some databases can be expensive. Providing a list of views in the connection string improves the performance of the connector.

This property can also be used as an alternative to automatically listing views if you already know which ones you want to work with and there would otherwise be too many to work with.

Specify the views you want in a comma-separated list. Each view should be a valid SQL identifier with any special characters escaped using square brackets, double-quotes or backticks. For example, Views=ViewA,[ViewB/WithSlash],WithCatalog.WithSchema.`ViewC With Space`.

Note that when connecting to a data source with multiple schemas or catalogs, you will need to provide the fully qualified name of the table in this property, as in the last example here, to avoid ambiguity between tables that exist in multiple catalogs or schemas.

Miscellaneous¶

This section provides a complete list of miscellaneous properties you can configure.

MaxRows¶

Limits the number of rows returned when no aggregation or GROUP BY is used in the query. This takes precedence over LIMIT clauses.

Data Type¶

int

Default Value¶

-1

Remarks¶

Limits the number of rows returned when no aggregation or GROUP BY is used in the query. This takes precedence over LIMIT clauses.

Other¶

These hidden properties are used only in specific use cases.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The properties listed below are available for specific use cases. Normal driver use cases and functionality should not require these properties.

Specify multiple properties in a semicolon-separated list.

Integration and Formatting¶

Pagesize¶

The maximum number of results to return per page from MarkLogic.

Data Type¶

int

Default Value¶

1000

Remarks¶

The Pagesize property affects the maximum number of results to return per page from MarkLogic. Setting a higher value may result in better performance at the cost of additional memory allocated per page consumed.

PseudoColumns¶

This property indicates whether or not to include pseudo columns as columns to the table.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

This setting is particularly helpful in Entity Framework, which does not allow you to set a value for a pseudo column unless it is a table column. The value of this connection setting is of the format "Table1=Column1, Table1=Column2, Table2=Column3". You can use the "*" character to include all tables and all columns; for example, "*=*".

Timeout¶

The value in seconds until the timeout error is thrown, canceling the operation.

Data Type¶

int

Default Value¶

60

Remarks¶

If Timeout = 0, operations do not time out. The operations run until they complete successfully or until they encounter an error condition.

If Timeout expires and the operation is not yet complete, the connector throws an exception.

UserDefinedViews¶

A filepath pointing to the JSON configuration file containing your custom views.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

User Defined Views are defined in a JSON-formatted configuration file called UserDefinedViews.json. The connector automatically detects the views specified in this file.

You can also have multiple view definitions and control them using the UserDefinedViews connection property. When you use this property, only the specified views are seen by the connector.

This User Defined View configuration file is formatted as follows:

• Each root element defines the name of a view.
• Each root element contains a child element, called query, which contains the custom SQL query for the view.

For example:

{
    "MyView": {
        "query": "SELECT * FROM [].[main].Customer WHERE MyColumn = 'value'"
    },
    "MyView2": {
        "query": "SELECT * FROM MyTable WHERE Id IN (1,2,3)"
    }
}

Use the UserDefinedViews connection property to specify the location of your JSON configuration file. For example:

"UserDefinedViews", C:\Users\yourusername\Desktop\tmp\UserDefinedViews.json

Note that the specified path is not embedded in quotation marks.