Azure Cosmos DB Connection Details¶

Introduction¶

Connector Version

This documentation is based on version 23.0.8895 of the connector.

Get Started¶

Azure Cosmos DB Version Support

The connector enables standards-based access to Azure Cosmos DB.

Establish a Connection¶

Before You Connect¶

Role Assignment¶

Ensure that the Azure identity has the correct role assignment. The identity is the account that you log in to the browser during AzureAD authentication or the Application itself for AzureServicePrincipal

authentication. Please visit the link below for more details:

Configure role-based access control for your Azure Cosmos DB account with Azure AD

You can either assign one of the built-in role definitions:

• CosmosDB Built-in Data Reader
• CosmosDB Built-in Data Contributor

or create your own custom role definitions. You must also set the scope of the role assignment, where "/" means that the identity has access to all the databases.

Connect to Azure Cosmos DB¶

Account Key¶

Log in to the Azure Portal, select Azure Cosmos DB, and select your account.

Set the following to authenticate:

• AccountEndpoint: The Cosmos DB account URL. Set this to the URI value found in the Settings > Keys blade of the Cosmos DB account.
• AccountKey: A master key token or a resource token for connecting to Azure Cosmos DB. Set this to the PRIMARY KEY value found in the Settings > Keys blade of the Cosmos DB account.
• TokenType: (optional). Set this to "master" (the default value) if you are using a Master Token, which is a full permissions token generated during account creation. Otherwise, set this property to "resource" if you are using a Resource Token, which is a custom permissions token generated when a database user is set up.

Azure AD¶

Azure AD is Microsoft’s multi-tenant, cloud-based directory and identity management service. It is user-based authentication that requires that you set AuthScheme to AzureAD.

Authentication to Azure AD over a Web application always requires the creation of a custom OAuth application. For details, see Creating an Azure AD Application.

Desktop Applications¶

provides an embedded OAuth application that simplifies connection to Azure AD from a Desktop application.

You can also authenticate from a desktop application using a custom OAuth application. (For further information, see Creating an Azure AD Application.) To authenticate via Azure AD, set these parameters:

• AuthScheme: AzureAD.
• Custom applications only:
  • OAuthClientId: The client ID assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
  • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
  • CallbackURL: The redirect URI you defined when you registered your custom OAuth application.

When you connect, the connector opens Azure Cosmos DB's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application.

The connector completes the OAuth process, obtaining an access token from Azure Cosmos DB and using it to request data. The OAuth values are saved in the path specified in OAuthSettingsLocation. These values persist across connections.

When the access token expires, the connector refreshes it automatically.

Azure Service Principal¶

Azure Service Principal is role-based application-based authentication. This means that authentication is done per application, rather than per user. All tasks taken on by the application are executed without a default user context, but based on the assigned roles. The application access to the resources is controlled through the assigned roles' permissions.

For information about how to set up Azure Service Principal authentication, see Creating an Azure AD Application with Service Principal.

Create an Azure AD Application¶

Create an Azure AD Application¶

Azure Cosmos DB supports user-based authentication using Azure AD. This authentication is OAuth-based.

To connect to Azure Cosmos DB via the Web, you must always create a custom application, as described here.

Custom OAuth applications are useful if you want to:

• Control branding of the authentication dialog.
• Control the redirect URI that the application redirects the user to after the user authenticates.
• Customize the permissions that you are requesting from the user.

Authenticate With Azure AD¶

In <https://portal.azure.com>:

1. In the left-hand navigation pane, select Azure Active Directory > App registrations.

2. Click New registration.

3. Enter a name for the application.

4. Specify the types of accounts this application should support:

   • For private use applications, select Accounts in this organization directory only.
   • For distributed applications, select one of the multi-tenant options.

1. Set the redirect URI to http://localhost:33333 (default) OR, if you want to

   specify a different port, specify the desired port and set CallbackURL to the exact reply URL you just defined.

2. To register the new application, click Register. An application management screen displays. Record these values for later use. (You will use the Application (client) ID value to set the OAuthClientId parameters, and the Directory (tenant) ID value to set the AzureTenant parameter.)

3. Navigate to Certificates & Secrets. Select New Client Secret for this application and specify the desired duration. After the client secret is saved, the Azure App Registration displays the key value. This value is displayed only once, so record it for future use. (You will use it to set the OAuthClientSecret.)

4. If you have specified the use of permissions that require admin consent (such as the Application Permissions), you can grant them from the current tenant on the API Permissions page.

Create an Azure AD Application with Service Principal¶

Create an Azure AD Application with Service Principal¶

Azure Cosmos DB supports Service Principal-based authentication, which is role-based. If you wish to use a Service Principal to authenticate to Azure Cosmos DB you must create a custom Azure AD application as described here. To use Azure Service Principal authentication, you must set up the ability to assign a role to the authentication application, then register an application with the Azure AD tenant to create a new Service Principal. That new Service Principal can then leverage the assigned role-based access control to access resources in your subscription.

Authenticate with an Azure Service Principal¶

In <https://portal.azure.com>:

1. In the left-hand navigation pane, select Azure Active Directory > App registrations.
2. Click New registration.
3. Enter a name for the application.
4. Select the desired tenant setup. Since this custom application is for Azure Service Principal, choose Any Microsoft Entra ID tenant - Multi Tenant.
5. To register the new application, click Register. An application management screen displays.
   Note the value in Application (client) ID as the OAuthClientId and the Directory (tenant) ID as the AzureTenant.
6. Navigate to Certificates & Secrets and define the application authentication type. There are two types of authentication available: certificate (recommended) or client secret.
   • For certificate authentication: In Certificates & Secrets, select Upload certificate, then upload the certificate from your local machine. For an example of how to create this certificate, see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity-platform/howto-create-self-signed-certificate.
   • For creating a new client secret: In Certificates & Secrets, select New Client Secret for the application and specify its duration. After the client secret is saved, Azure Cosmos DB displays the key value. This value is displayed only once, so record it for future use. (This value becomes the OAuthClientSecret.)
7. Navigate to the Authentication tab and select the Access tokens option.
8. Save your changes.

Consent for Client Credentials¶

OAuth supports the use of client credentials to authenticate. In a client credentials authentication flow, credentials are created for the authenticating application itself. The auth flow acts just like the usual auth flow, except that there is no prompt for an associated user to provide credentials.

All tasks accepted by the application are executed outside of the context of a default user.

use them in a client authentication flow. You must always create a custom Azure AD application to use client credentials.

In <https://portal.azure.com>:

1. Create a custom Azure AD application, as described above.
2. Navigate to App Registrations.
3. Find the application you just created, and open API Permissions.
4. Select the Microsoft Graph permissions. There are two distinct sets of permissions: Delegated and Application.
5. For use with Service Principal, specify Application permissions.
6. Select the permissions you require for your integration.

Fine-Tuning Data Access¶

Fine Tuning Data Access¶

You can use the following properties to gain greater control over Azure Cosmos DB API features and the strategies the connector uses to surface them:

• RowScanDepth: This property determines the number of rows that will be scanned to detect column data types when generating table metadata.
• TypeDetectionScheme: This property allows more control over the strategy implemented by the RowScanDepth property.
• GenerateSchemaFiles: This property enables you to persist table metadata in static schema files that are easy to customize, to persist your changes to column data types, for example.
  You can set this property to "OnStart" to generate schema files for all tables in your database at connection. Or, you can generate schemas as you execute SELECT queries to tables.
  The resulting schemas are based on the connection properties you use to configure Automatic Schema Discovery
  To use the resulting schema files, set the Location property to the folder containing the schemas.

Set a RU Budget for Batch Writes¶

Just as described in the SQL Compliance the connector supports batch CUD (Create, Update, Delete) operations. Batch processing is achieved by issuing multiple requests simultaneously. Even though this method greatly improves the performance for write operations, the cost of these operations is relatively high, thus the Request Units (RU) budget per second for a certain container or database may be exceeded. Depending on your Azure Cosmos DB Service Quotas, exceeding the RU budgets may incur in extra costs, or it may even temporary throttle or interrupt the Azure Cosmos DB usage for other workloads.

In order to avoid exceeding the RU budget per second, the connector dynamically adjusts the number of concurrent requests per second depending on the set WriteThroughputBudget and the constantly adjusted average RU cost per statement. The user can utilize the WriteThroughputBudget connection property to define the RU budged per second, that batch write operations should not exceed. Another important factor in batch write operations is the MaxThreads connection property, which specifies the maximum number of concurrent requests. If using a low MaxThreads value, the connector might not be able to efficiently use the available budget.

Since the requests throttling logic is applied client-side, in a few cases the RU/s budged may be exceeded by a relatively small amount. These cases include inserting, updating and deleting records with highly variable column count and input value length per column.

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.

NoSQL Database¶

Azure Cosmos DB is a schemaless, document database that provides high performance, availability, and scalability. These features are not necessarily incompatible with a standards-compliant query language like SQL-92. In this section we will show various schemes that the connector offers to bridge the gap with relational SQL and a document database.

Work with Azure Cosmos DB Objects as Tables

The connector models the schemaless Azure Cosmos DB objects into relational tables and translates SQL queries into Azure Cosmos DB queries to get the requested data. See Query Mapping (Sql API) for more details on how various Azure Cosmos DB operations are represented as SQL.

Discover Schemas Automatically

The Automatic Schema Discovery scheme automatically finds the data types in a Azure Cosmos DB object by scanning a configured number of rows of the object. You can use RowScanDepth, FlattenArrays, and FlattenObjects to control the relational representation of the collections in Azure Cosmos DB. You can also write Free-Form Queries not tied to the schema.

Customize Schemas

Optionally, you can use Custom Schema Definitions to project your chosen relational structure on top of a Azure Cosmos DB object. This allows you to define your chosen names of columns, their data types, and the location of their values in the collection.

Set GenerateSchemaFiles to save the detected schemas as simple configuration files that are easy to extend. You can persist schemas for all collections in the database or for the results of SELECT queries.

Limitations of the RawValue TypeDetectionScheme

If the TypeDetectionScheme is set to RawValue, the connector will push each document as single aggregate value on a column named JsonData, along with its resource identifier on the separate Primary Key column. The JSON documents are not processed, and as a result, the below functionalities are NOT supported with this configuration.

• Automatic Schema Discovery
• Free-Form Queries
• Vertical Flattening
• SQL API Built-In Functions
• SQL API GROUP BY
• Almost all server side supported filters apart from WHERE clause conditions built with the resource identifier.

Automatic Schema Discovery¶

The connector automatically infers a relational schema by inspecting a series of Azure Cosmos DB documents in a collection. You can use the RowScanDepth property to define the number of documents the connector will scan to do so. The columns identified during the discovery process depend on the FlattenArrays and FlattenObjects properties.

Flatten Objects¶

If FlattenObjects is set, all nested objects will be flattened into a series of columns. For example, consider the following document:

{
  id: 12,
  name: "Lohia Manufacturers Inc.",
  address: {street: "Main Street", city: "Chapel Hill", state: "NC"},
  offices: ["Chapel Hill", "London", "New York"],
  annual_revenue: 35,600,000
}

This document will be represented by the following columns:

If FlattenObjects is not set, then the address.street, address.city, and address.state columns will not be broken apart. The address column of type string will instead represent the entire object. Its value would be {street: "Main Street", city: "Chapel Hill", state: "NC"}. See JSON Functions for more details on working with JSON aggregates. You can change the separator character in the column name from a dot by setting SeparatorCharacter.

Flatten Arrays¶

The FlattenArrays property can be used to flatten array values into columns of their own. This is only recommended for arrays that are expected to be short, for example the coordinates below:

"coord": [ -73.856077, 40.848447 ]

The FlattenArrays property can be set to 2 to represent the array above as follows:

It is best to leave other unbounded arrays as they are and piece out the data for them as needed using JSON Functions.

Free-Form Queries¶

As discussed in Automatic Schema Discovery, intuited table schemas enable SQL access to unstructured Azure Cosmos DB data. JSON Functions enable you to use standard JSON functions to summarize Azure Cosmos DB data and extract values from any nested structures. Custom Schema Definitions enable you to define static tables and give you more granular control over the relational view of your data; for example, you can write schemas defining parent/child tables or fact/dimension tables. However, you are not limited to these schemes.

After connecting you can query any nested structure without flattening the data. Any relations that you can access with FlattenArrays and FlattenObjects can also be accessed with an ad hoc SQL query.

Let's consider an example document from the following Restaurant data set:

{
  "address": {
    "building": "1007",
    "coord": [
      -73.856077,
      40.848447
    ],
    "street": "Morris Park Ave",
    "zipcode": "10462"
  },
  "borough": "Bronx",
  "cuisine": "Bakery",
  "grades": [
    {
      "grade": "A",
      "score": 2,
      "date": {
        "$date": "1393804800000"
      }
    },
    {
      "date": {
        "$date": "1378857600000"
      },
      "grade": "B",
      "score": 6
    },
    {
      "score": 10,
      "date": {
        "$date": "1358985600000"
      },
      "grade": "C"
    }
  ],
  "name": "Morris Park Bake Shop",
  "restaurant_id": "30075445"
} 

You can access any nested structure in this document as a column. Use the dot notation to drill down to the values you want to access as shown in the query below. Note that arrays have a zero-based index. For example, the following query retrieves the second grade for the restaurant in the example:

SELECT [address.building], [grades.1.grade] FROM restaurants WHERE restaurant_id = '30075445'

The preceding query returns the following results:

Vertical Flattening¶

It is possible to retrieve an array of documents as if it were a separate table. Take the following JSON structure from the restaurants collection for example:

{
  "_id" : ObjectId("568c37b748ddf53c5ed98932"),
  "address" : {
    "building" : "1007",
    "coord" : [-73.856077, 40.848447],
    "street" : "Morris Park Ave",
    "zipcode" : "10462"
  },
  "borough" : "Bronx",
  "cuisine" : "Bakery",
  "grades" : [{
      "date" : ISODate("2014-03-03T00:00:00Z"),
      "grade" : "A",
      "score" : 2
    }, {
      "date" : ISODate("2013-09-11T00:00:00Z"),
      "grade" : "A",
      "score" : 6
    }, {
      "date" : ISODate("2013-01-24T00:00:00Z"),
      "grade" : "A",
      "score" : 10
    }, {
      "date" : ISODate("2011-11-23T00:00:00Z"),
      "grade" : "A",
      "score" : 9
    }, {
      "date" : ISODate("2011-03-10T00:00:00Z"),
      "grade" : "B",
      "score" : 14
    }],
  "name" : "Morris Park Bake Shop",
  "restaurant_id" : "30075445"
}

Vertical flattening will allow you to retrieve the grades array as a separate table:

SELECT * FROM [restaurants.grades]

This query returns the following data set:

You may also want to include information from the base restaurants table. You can do this with a join. Flattened arrays can only be joined with the root document. The connector expects the left part of the join is the array document you want to flatten vertically. Disable SupportEnhancedSQL to join nested Azure Cosmos DB documents -- this type of query is supported through the Azure Cosmos DB API.

SELECT [restaurants].[restaurant_id], [restaurants.grades].* FROM [restaurants.grades] JOIN [restaurants] WHERE [restaurants].name = 'Morris Park Bake Shop'

This query returns the following data set:

JSON Functions¶

The connector can return JSON structures as column values. The connector enables you to use standard SQL functions to work with these JSON structures. The examples in this section use the following array:

[
     { "grade": "A", "score": 2 },
     { "grade": "A", "score": 6 },
     { "grade": "A", "score": 10 },
     { "grade": "A", "score": 9 },
     { "grade": "B", "score": 14 }
]

JSON_EXTRACT¶

The JSON_EXTRACT function can extract individual values from a JSON object. The following query returns the values shown below based on the JSON path passed as the second argument to the function:

SELECT Name, JSON_EXTRACT(grades,'[0].grade') AS Grade, JSON_EXTRACT(grades,'[0].score') AS Score FROM Students;

JSON_COUNT¶

The JSON_COUNT function returns the number of elements in a JSON array within a JSON object. The following query returns the number of elements specified by the JSON path passed as the second argument to the function:

SELECT Name, JSON_COUNT(grades,'[x]') AS NumberOfGrades FROM Students;

JSON_SUM¶

The JSON_SUM function returns the sum of the numeric values of a JSON array within a JSON object. The following query returns the total of the values specified by the JSON path passed as the second argument to the function:

SELECT Name, JSON_SUM(score,'[x].score') AS TotalScore FROM Students;

JSON_MIN¶

The JSON_MIN function returns the lowest numeric value of a JSON array within a JSON object. The following query returns the minimum value specified by the JSON path passed as the second argument to the function:

SELECT Name, JSON_MIN(score,'[x].score') AS LowestScore FROM Students;

JSON_MAX¶

The JSON_MAX function returns the highest numeric value of a JSON array within a JSON object. The following query returns the maximum value specified by the JSON path passed as the second argument to the function:

SELECT Name, JSON_MAX(score,'[x].score') AS HighestScore FROM Students;

DOCUMENT¶

The DOCUMENT function can be used to retrieve the entire document as a JSON string. See the following query and its result as an example:

SELECT DOCUMENT(*) FROM Customers;

The query above will return the entire document as shown.

{ "id": 12, "name": "Lohia Manufacturers Inc.", "address": { "street": "Main Street", "city": "Chapel Hill", "state": "NC"}, "offices": [ "Chapel Hill", "London", "New York" ], "annual_revenue": 35,600,000 }

SQL API Built-In Functions¶

Cosmos DB also supports a number of built-in functions for common operations, that can be used inside queries. Here are some example of how can be used as part of select columns or the WHERE clause:

Use Built-in functions as part of SELECT columns

SELECT IS_NUMBER(user_id) AS ISN_ATTR, IS_NUMBER(id) AS ISN_ID FROM [users]
SELECT POWER(user_id, 2) AS POWERSSS, LENGTH(id) AS LENGTH_ID, PI() AS JustThePI FROM [users]

Use Built-in functions as part of WHERE clause

SELECT * FROM [users] WHERE STARTSWITH(middle_name, 'G')
SELECT * FROM [users] WHERE REPLACE(middle_name, 'Chr', '___') = '___istopher'

Mathematical functions¶

The mathematical functions each perform a calculation, based on input values that are provided as arguments, and return a numeric value. Here's a table of supported built-in mathematical functions.

Type checking functions¶

The type checking functions allow you to check the type of an expression within SQL queries. Type checking functions can be used to determine the type of properties within documents dynamically when it is variable or unknown. Here's a table of supported built-in type checking functions.

Stre functions¶

The following scalar functions perform an operation on a string input value and return a string, numeric or Boolean value. Here's a table of built-in string functions:

Array functions¶

The following scalar functions perform an operation on an array input value and return numeric, Boolean or array value. Here's a table of built-in array functions:

Nested functions¶

You can also perform nested built-in functions, wich will be processed server side as well:

i.e. SELECT TOP 10 CONCAT(SUBSTRING(UPPER(cuisine), 0, 3), '-cuisine') FROM [restaurants]

SQL API GROUP BY¶

The GROUP BY clause divides the query's results according to the values of one or more specified properties. This operation is partially done server-side because of some API limitations. We still need to operate a client-side grouping.

GROUP BY Examples¶

SELECT COUNT(*) AS CNT, gender FROM [users] GROUP BY gender

SELECT COUNT(*) AS CNT, gender, doc_type FROM [users] GROUP BY gender, doc_type

Query Mapping (Sql API)¶

The connector maps SQL queries into the corresponding Azure Cosmos DB SQL API queries. A detailed description of all the transformations is out of scope, but we will describe some of the common elements that are used. The connector takes advantage of SQL API features such as the aggregation framework to compute the desired results.

SELECT Queries¶

Since all requests can be submitted to a specific collection, we can send any constant string as table name to the API. Following the Azure Portal standard we are using the "C" character as table name.

SELECT id, name FROM Users

SELECT C.id, C.name FROM C

SELECT * FROM Users WHERE name = 'A'

SELECT * FROM C WHERE C.name = 'A'

SELECT * FROM Users WHERE name = 'A' OR email = 'zoe55@gmail.com'

SELECT * FROM C WHERE C.name = 'A' OR C.email = 'zoe55@gmail.com'

SELECT id, grantamt FROM WorldBank WHERE grantamt IN (4500000, 85400000) OR grantamt = 16200000

SELECT C.id, C.grantamt FROM C WHERE C.grantamt IN (4500000, 85400000) OR C.grantamt = 16200000

SELECT * FROM WorldBank WHERE CountryCode = 'A' ORDER BY TotalCommAmt ASC

SELECT * FROM C WHERE C.countrycode = 'AL' ORDER BY C.totalcommamt ASC

SELECT * FROM WorldBank WHERE CountryCode = 'A' ORDER BY TotalCommAmt DESC

SELECT * FROM C WHERE C.countrycode = 'AL' ORDER BY C.totalcommamt DESC

Aggregate Queries¶

The connector makes extensive use of this for various aggregate queries. See some examples below:

SELECT COUNT(grantamt) AS COUNT_GRAMT FROM WorldBank

SELECT COUNT(C.grantamt) AS COUNT_GRAMT FROM C

SELECT SUM(grantamt) AS SUM_GRAMT FROM WorldBank

SELECT SUM(C.grantamt) AS SUM_GRAMT FROM C

Built-In functions¶

SELECT IS_NUMBER(grantamt) AS ISN_ATTR, IS_NUMBER(id) AS ISN_ID FROM WorldBank

SELECT IS_NUMBER(C.grantamt) AS ISN_ATTR, IS_NUMBER(C.id) AS ISN_ID FROM C

SELECT POWER(totalamt, 2) AS POWERS_A, LENGTH(id) AS LENGTH_ID, PI() AS ThePI FROM WorldBank

SELECT POWER(C.totalamt, 2) AS POWERS_A, LENGTH(C.id) AS LENGTH_ID, PI() AS ThePI FROM C

Custom Schema Definitions¶

You can extend the table schemas created with Automatic Schema Discovery by saving them into schema files. The schema files have a simple format that makes the schemas to edit.

Generate Schema Files¶

Set GenerateSchemaFiles to "OnStart" to persist schemas for all tables when you connect. You can also generate table schemas as needed: Set GenerateSchemaFiles to "OnUse" and execute a SELECT query to the table.

For example, consider a schema for the restaurants data set. This is a sample data set provided by Azure Cosmos DB.

Below is an example document from the collection:

{
  "address":{
    "building":"461",
      "coord":[
        -74.138492,
        40.631136
      ],
      "street":"Port Richmond Ave",
      "zipcode":"10302"
   },
   "borough":"Staten Island",
   "cuisine":"Other",
   "name":"Indian Oven",
   "restaurant_id":"50018994"
}

Customize a Schema¶

When GenerateSchemaFiles is set, the connector saves schemas into the folder specified by the Location property. You can then change column behavior in the resulting schema.

The following schema uses the other:bsonpath property to define where in the collection to retrieve the data for a particular column. Using this model you can flatten arbitrary levels of hierarchy.

Below are the corresponding column definitions for the restaurants data set. In Custom Schema Example, you will find the complete schema.

<rsb:script xmlns:rsb="http://www.rssbus.com/ns/rsbscript/2">

  <rsb:info title="StaticRestaurants" description="Custom Schema for the restaurants data set.">
    <!-- Column definitions -->
    <attr   name="_rid"               xs:type="string"   key="true"   other:collrid="hWdRAKRi3Pg=" other:dbrid="hWdRAA==" other:partitionpath="/name" />
    <attr   name="borough"            xs:type="string"   />
    <attr   name="cuisine"            xs:type="string"   />
    <attr   name="address.building"   xs:type="string"   />
    <attr   name="address.street"     xs:type="string"   />
    <attr   name="address.coord.0"    xs:type="double"   />
    <attr   name="address.coord.1"    xs:type="double"   />
    <input name="rows@next" desc="Internal attribute used for paging through data."  />
  </rsb:info>

  <rsb:set attr="collection" value="restaurants"/>

</rsb:script>

Custom Schema Example¶

This section contains a complete schema. The info section enables a relational view of a Azure Cosmos DB object. For more details, see Custom Schema Definitions. The table below allows the SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE commands as implemented in the GET, POST, MERGE, and DELETE sections of the schema below.

Copy the rows@next input as-is into your schema. The operations, such as cosmosdbadoSysData, are internal implementations and can also be copied as is.

Set the Location property to the file directory that will contain the schema file.

When, creating custom schemas, the attr for _rid, shown below, is required.

Also required are three properties for the _rid column definition:

• other:dbrid is found in the _self property of an item in the collection, after "dbs/".
• other:collrid is found in the _self property of an item in the collection, after "/colls/".
• other:partitionpath refers to the name of the partition specified when the collection was created.

<rsb:script xmlns:rsb="http://www.rssbus.com/ns/rsbscript/2">

  <rsb:info title="StaticRestaurants" description="Custom Schema for the restaurants data set.">
    <!-- Column definitions -->
    <attr   name="_rid"               xs:type="string"   key="true"   other:collrid="hWdRAKRi3Pg=" other:dbrid="hWdRAA==" other:partitionpath="/name" />
    <attr   name="borough"            xs:type="string"   />
    <attr   name="cuisine"            xs:type="string"   />
    <attr   name="address.building"   xs:type="string"   />
    <attr   name="address.street"     xs:type="string"   />
    <attr   name="address.coord.0"    xs:type="double"   />
    <attr   name="address.coord.1"    xs:type="double"   />
    <input name="rows@next" desc="Internal attribute used for paging through data."  />
  </rsb:info>

  <rsb:script method="GET">
    <rsb:call op="cosmosdbadoSysData">
      <rsb:push />
    </rsb:call>
  </rsb:script>

  <rsb:script method="POST">
    <rsb:call op="cosmosdbadoSysData">
      <rsb:push />
    </rsb:call>
  </rsb:script>

  <rsb:script method="MERGE">
    <rsb:call op="cosmosdbadoSysData">
      <rsb:push />
    </rsb:call>
  </rsb:script>

  <rsb:script method="DELETE">
    <rsb:call op="cosmosdbadoSysData">
      <rsb:push />
    </rsb:call>
  </rsb:script>

</rsb:script>

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 Azure Cosmos DB:

• 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, including batch operations:

• 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 [].[Entities].Customers table:

SELECT ColumnName, DataTypeName FROM sys_tablecolumns WHERE TableName='Customers' AND CatalogName='' AND SchemaName='Entities'

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 EVAL stored procedure:

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

Columns¶

sys_keycolumns¶

Describes the primary and foreign keys.

The following query retrieves the primary key for the [].[Entities].Customers table:

SELECT * FROM sys_keycolumns WHERE IsKey='True' AND TableName='Customers' AND CatalogName='' AND SchemaName='Entities'

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:cosmosdb: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.

Discover 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 NoSQL Database 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¶

Stored Procedures¶

Stored procedures are function-like interfaces that extend the functionality of the connector beyond simple SELECT/INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE operations with Azure Cosmos DB.

Stored procedures accept a list of parameters, perform their intended function, and then return any relevant response data from Azure Cosmos DB, along with an indication of whether the procedure succeeded or failed.

Azure Cosmos DB Connector Stored Procedures¶

AddDocument¶

Insert entire JSON string to CosmosDB.

Input¶

Result Set Columns¶

CreateSchema¶

Creates a schema file for the collection.

CreateSchema¶

Creates a local schema file (.rsd) from an existing table or view in the data model.

The schema file is created in the directory set in the Location connection property when this procedure is executed. You can edit the file to include or exclude columns, rename columns, or adjust column datatypes.

The connector checks the Location to determine if the names of any .rsd files match a table or view in the data model. If there is a duplicate, the schema file will take precedence over the default instance of this table in the data model. If a schema file is present in Location that does not match an existing table or view, a new table or view entry is added to the data model of the connector.

Input¶

Result Set Columns¶

GetOAuthAccessToken¶

Gets the OAuth access token from CosmosDB.

Input¶

Result Set Columns¶

GetOAuthAuthorizationURL¶

Gets the CosmosDB authorization URL. Access the URL returned in the output in a Web browser. This requests the access token that can be used as part of the connection string to CosmosDB.

Input¶

Result Set Columns¶

RefreshOAuthAccessToken¶

Refreshes the OAuth access token used for authentication with CosmosDB.

Input¶

Result Set 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

Azure Authentication

OAuth

JWT OAuth

SSL

Schema

Miscellaneous

Authentication¶

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

AuthScheme¶

The type of authentication to use when connecting to Azure Cosmos DB.

Possible Values¶

AccountKey, AzureAD, AzureServicePrincipal, AzureServicePrincipalCert

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

AccountKey

Remarks¶

• AccountKey: Set this to perform authentication with AccountKey and AccountEndpoint.
• AzureAD: Set this to perform Azure Active Directory OAuth authentication.
• AzureServicePrincipal: Set this to authenticate as an Azure Service Principal using a Client Secret.
• AzureServicePrincipalCert: Set this to authenticate as an Azure Service Principal using a Certificate.

AccountEndpoint¶

The value should be the Cosmos DB account URL from the Keys blade of the Cosmos DB account.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The value should be the Cosmos DB account URL from the Keys blade of the Cosmos DB account.

AccountKey¶

A master key token or a resource token for connecting to the Azure Cosmos DB REST API.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

In the Azure portal, navigate to the Cosmos DB service and select your Azure Cosmos DB account. From the resource menu, go to the Keys page. Find the PRIMARY KEY value and set Token to this value.

TokenType¶

Denotes the type of token: master or resource.

Possible Values¶

master, resource

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

master

Remarks¶

The master key is created during the creation of an account. There are two sets of master keys, the primary key and the secondary key. The administrator of the account can then exercise key rotation using the secondary key. In addition, the account administrator can also regenerate the keys as needed.

Resource tokens are created when users in a database are set up with access permissions for precise access control on a resource, also known as a permission resource. A permission resource contains a hash resource token constructed with the information regarding the resource path and access type a user has access to. The permission resource token is time bound and the validity period can be overridden. When a permission resource is acted upon on (POST, GET, PUT), a new resource token is generated.

Azure Authentication¶

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

AzureTenant¶

The Microsoft Online tenant being used to access data. If not specified, your default tenant is used.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The Microsoft Online tenant being used to access data. For instance, contoso.onmicrosoft.com. Alternatively, specify the tenant Id. This value is the directory ID in the Azure Portal > Azure Active Directory > Properties.

Typically it is not necessary to specify the Tenant. This can be automatically determined by Microsoft when using the OAuthGrantType set to CODE (default). However, it may fail in the case that the user belongs to multiple tenants. For instance, if an Admin of domain A invites a user of domain B to be a guest user. The user will now belong to both tenants. It is a good practice to specify the Tenant, although in general things should normally work without having to specify it.

The AzureTenant is required when setting OAuthGrantType to CLIENT. When using client credentials, there is no user context. The credentials are taken from the context of the app itself. While Microsoft still allows client credentials to be obtained without specifying which Tenant, it has a much lower probability of picking the specific tenant you want to work with. For this reason, we require AzureTenant to be explicitly stated for all client credentials connections to ensure you get credentials that are applicable for the domain you intend to connect to.

The Microsoft Online tenant being used to access data. For instance, contoso.onmicrosoft.com. Alternatively, specify the tenant Id. This value is the directory ID in the Azure Portal > Azure Active Directory > Properties.

Typically it is not necessary to specify the Tenant. This can be automatically determined by Microsoft when using the OAuthGrantType set to CODE (default). However, it may fail in the case that the user belongs to multiple tenants. For instance, if an Admin of domain A invites a user of domain B to be a guest user. The user will now belong to both tenants. It is a good practice to specify the Tenant, although in general things should normally work without having to specify it.

The AzureTenant is required when setting OAuthGrantType to CLIENT. When using client credentials, there is no user context. The credentials are taken from the context of the app itself. While Microsoft still allows client credentials to be obtained without specifying which Tenant, it has a much lower probability of picking the specific tenant you want to work with. For this reason, we require AzureTenant to be explicitly stated for all client credentials connections to ensure you get credentials that are applicable for the domain you intend to connect to.

AzureEnvironment¶

The Azure Environment to use when establishing a connection.

Possible Values¶

GLOBAL, CHINA, USGOVT, USGOVTDOD

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

GLOBAL

Remarks¶

In most cases, leaving the environment set to global will work. However, if your Azure Account has been added to a different environment, the AzureEnvironment may be used to specify which environment. The available values are GLOBAL, CHINA, USGOVT, USGOVTDOD.

OAuth¶

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

InitiateOAuth¶

Set this property to initiate the process to obtain or refresh the OAuth access token when you connect.

Possible Values¶

OFF, GETANDREFRESH, REFRESH

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

OFF

Remarks¶

The following options are available:

1. OFF: Indicates that the OAuth flow will be handled entirely by the user. An OAuthAccessToken will be required to authenticate.
2. GETANDREFRESH: Indicates that the entire OAuth Flow will be handled by the connector. If no token currently exists, it will be obtained by prompting the user via the browser. If a token exists, it will be refreshed when applicable.
3. REFRESH: Indicates that the connector will only handle refreshing the OAuthAccessToken. The user will never be prompted by the connector to authenticate via the browser. The user must handle obtaining the OAuthAccessToken and OAuthRefreshToken initially.

OAuthClientId¶

The client ID assigned when you register your application with an OAuth authorization server.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

As part of registering an OAuth application, you will receive the OAuthClientId value, sometimes also called a consumer key, and a client secret, the OAuthClientSecret.

OAuthClientSecret¶

The client secret assigned when you register your application with an OAuth authorization server.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

As part of registering an OAuth application, you will receive the OAuthClientId, also called a consumer key. You will also receive a client secret, also called a consumer secret. Set the client secret in the OAuthClientSecret property.

OAuthAccessToken¶

The access token for connecting using OAuth.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The OAuthAccessToken property is used to connect using OAuth. The OAuthAccessToken is retrieved from the OAuth server as part of the authentication process. It has a server-dependent timeout and can be reused between requests.

The access token is used in place of your user name and password. The access token protects your credentials by keeping them on the server.

OAuthSettingsLocation¶

The location of the settings file where OAuth values are saved when InitiateOAuth is set to GETANDREFRESH or REFRESH . Alternatively, you can hold this location in memory by specifying a value starting with 'memory://'.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

%APPDATA%\CosmosDB Data Provider\OAuthSettings.txt

Remarks¶

When InitiateOAuth is set to GETANDREFRESH or REFRESH, the connector saves OAuth values to avoid requiring the user to manually enter OAuth connection properties and to allow the credentials to be shared across connections or processes.

Instead of specifying a file path, you can use memory storage. Memory locations are specified by using a value starting with 'memory://' followed by a unique identifier for that set of credentials (for example, memory://user1). The identifier can be anything you choose but should be unique to the user. Unlike file-based storage, where credentials persist across connections, memory storage loads the credentials into static memory, and the credentials are shared between connections using the same identifier for the life of the process. To persist credentials outside the current process, you must manually store the credentials prior to closing the connection. This enables you to set them in the connection when the process is started again. You can retrieve OAuth property values with a query to the sys_connection_props system table. If there are multiple connections using the same credentials, the properties are read from the previously closed connection.

The default location is "%APPDATA%\CosmosDB Data Provider\OAuthSettings.txt" with %APPDATA% set to the user's configuration directory. The default values are

• Windows: "register://%DSN"
• Unix: "%AppData%..."
• Mac: "%AppData%..."

where DSN is the name of the current DSN used in the open connection.

The following table lists the value of %APPDATA% by OS:

CallbackURL¶

The OAuth callback URL to return to when authenticating. This value must match the callback URL you specify in your app settings.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

During the authentication process, the OAuth authorization server redirects the user to this URL. This value must match the callback URL you specify in your app settings.

OAuthGrantType¶

The grant type for the OAuth flow.

Possible Values¶

CODE, CLIENT, PASSWORD

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

CLIENT

Remarks¶

The following options are available: CODE,CLIENT,PASSWORD

OAuthVerifier¶

The verifier code returned from the OAuth authorization URL.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The verifier code returned from the OAuth authorization URL. This can be used on systems where a browser cannot be launched such as headless systems.

Authentication on Headless Machines¶

See to obtain the OAuthVerifier value.

Set OAuthSettingsLocation along with OAuthVerifier. When you connect, the connector exchanges the OAuthVerifier for the OAuth authentication tokens and saves them, encrypted, to the specified location. Set InitiateOAuth to GETANDREFRESH to automate the exchange.

Once the OAuth settings file has been generated, you can remove OAuthVerifier from the connection properties and connect with OAuthSettingsLocation set.

To automatically refresh the OAuth token values, set OAuthSettingsLocation and additionally set InitiateOAuth to REFRESH.

OAuthRefreshToken¶

The OAuth refresh token for the corresponding OAuth access token.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The OAuthRefreshToken property is used to refresh the OAuthAccessToken when using OAuth authentication.

OAuthExpiresIn¶

The lifetime in seconds of the OAuth AccessToken.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

Pair with OAuthTokenTimestamp to determine when the AccessToken will expire.

OAuthTokenTimestamp¶

The Unix epoch timestamp in milliseconds when the current Access Token was created.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

Pair with OAuthExpiresIn to determine when the AccessToken will expire.

JWT OAuth¶

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

OAuthJWTCert¶

The JWT Certificate store.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The name of the certificate store for the client certificate.

The OAuthJWTCertType field specifies the type of the certificate store specified by OAuthJWTCert. If the store is password protected, specify the password in OAuthJWTCertPassword.

OAuthJWTCert is used in conjunction with the OAuthJWTCertSubject

field in order to specify client certificates. If OAuthJWTCert has a value, and OAuthJWTCertSubject is set, a search for a certificate is initiated. Please refer to the OAuthJWTCertSubject field for details.

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 (i.e. PKCS12 certificate store).

OAuthJWTCertType¶

The type of key store containing the JWT 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:

OAuthJWTCertPassword¶

The password for the OAuth JWT 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 in order to open the certificate store.

OAuthJWTCertSubject¶

The subject of the OAuth JWT 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 instance "CN=www.server.com, OU=test, C=US, E=support@jitterbit.com". Common fields and their meanings are displayed below.

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

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%\CosmosDB 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%\CosmosDB 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.

Schema¶

Specify the Azure Cosmos DB database you want to work with.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

Specify the Azure Cosmos DB database you want to work with.

Miscellaneous¶

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

CalculateAggregates¶

Specifies whether will return the calculated value of the aggregates or grouped by partiton range.

Data Type¶

bool

Default Value¶

true

Remarks¶

Specifies whether will return the calculated value of the aggregates or grouped by partiton range.

ConsistencyLevel¶

Denotes the type of token: master or resource.

Possible Values¶

STRONG, BOUNDED, SESSION, CONSISTENTPREFIX, EVENTUAL

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

SESSION

Remarks¶

The consistency level override for read options against documents and attachments. The valid values are: Strong, Bounded, Session, or Eventual (in order of strongest to weakest). The override must be the same or weaker than the account's configured consistency level.

The consistency level override for read options against documents and attachments. The valid values are: Strong, Bounded, Session, or Eventual (in order of strongest to weakest). The override must be the same or weaker than the account's configured consistency level.

FlattenArrays¶

By default, nested arrays are returned as strings of JSON. The FlattenArrays property can be used to flatten the elements of nested arrays into columns of their own. Set FlattenArrays to the number of elements you want to return from nested arrays.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

0

Remarks¶

By default, nested arrays are returned as strings of JSON. The FlattenArrays property can be used to flatten the elements of nested arrays into columns of their own. This is only recommended for arrays that are expected to be short.

Set FlattenArrays to the number of elements you want to return from nested arrays. The specified elements are returned as columns. The zero-based index is concatenated to the column name. Other elements are ignored.

For example, you can return an arbitrary number of elements from an array of strings:

["FLOW-MATIC","LISP","COBOL"]

When FlattenArrays is set to 1, the preceding array is flattened into the following table:

Setting FlattenArrays to -1 will flatten all the elements of nested arrays.

FlattenObjects¶

Set FlattenObjects to true to flatten object properties into columns of their own. Otherwise, objects nested in arrays are returned as strings of JSON.

Data Type¶

bool

Default Value¶

true

Remarks¶

Set FlattenObjects to true to flatten object properties into columns of their own. Otherwise, objects nested in arrays are returned as strings of JSON. The property name is concatenated onto the object name with a dot to generate the column name.

For example, you can flatten the nested objects below at connection time:

[
     { "grade": "A", "score": 2 },
     { "grade": "A", "score": 6 },
     { "grade": "A", "score": 10 },
     { "grade": "A", "score": 9 },
     { "grade": "B", "score": 14 }
]

When FlattenObjects is set to true and FlattenArrays is set to 1, the preceding array is flattened into the following table:

ForceQueryOnNonIndexedContainers¶

Force the use of an index scan to process the query if indexing is disabled or the right index path is not available.

Data Type¶

bool

Default Value¶

false

Remarks¶

Queries against containers where indexing is disabled or paths are excluded may fail. Set this property to true to force the use of indexing on the server so the query is processed successfully. By default, queries that require the use of indexing on containers where IndexingMode=None are handled client-side.

GenerateSchemaFiles¶

Indicates the user preference as to when schemas should be generated and saved.

Possible Values¶

Never, OnUse, OnStart, OnCreate

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

Never

Remarks¶

GenerateSchemaFiles enables you to save the table definitions identified by Automatic Schema Discovery. This property outputs schemas to .rsd files in the path specified by Location.

Available settings are the following:

• Never: A schema file will never be generated.
• OnUse: A schema file will be generated the first time a table is referenced, provided the schema file for the table does not already exist.
• OnStart: A schema file will be generated at connection time for any tables that do not currently have a schema file.
• OnCreate: A schema file will be generated by when running a CREATE TABLE SQL query.

Note that if you want to regenerate a file, you will first need to delete it.

Generate Schemas with SQL¶

When you set GenerateSchemaFiles to OnUse, the connector generates schemas as you execute SELECT queries. Schemas are generated for each table referenced in the query.

When you set GenerateSchemaFiles to OnCreate, schemas are only generated when a CREATE TABLE query is executed.

Generate Schemas on Connection¶

Another way to use this property is to obtain schemas for every table in your database when you connect. To do so, set GenerateSchemaFiles to OnStart and connect.

Alternatives to Static Schemas¶

If your data structures are volatile, consider setting GenerateSchemaFiles to Never and using dynamic schemas. See Automatic Schema Discovery for more information about dynamic schemas.

Editing Schemas¶

Schema files have a simple format that makes them easy to modify. See Custom Schema Definitions for more information.

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.

MaxThreads¶

Specifies the maximum number of concurrent requests for Batch CUD (Create, Update, Delete) operations.

Data Type¶

int

Default Value¶

200

Remarks¶

This property should be used in conjunction with the WriteThroughputBudget connection property. The connector may execute less parallel requests than the configured MaxThreads value, since it always aims to not exceed the WriteThroughputBudget limit. The number of concurrent requests will also depend on the running machine's resources.

MultiThreadCount¶

Aggregate queries in partitioned collections will require parallel requests for different partition ranges. Set this to the number of parallel request to be issued in the same time.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

5

Remarks¶

Aggregate queries in partitioned collections will require parallel requests for different partition ranges. Set this to the number of parallel request to be issued in the same time.

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 Azure Cosmos DB.

Data Type¶

int

Default Value¶

1000

Remarks¶

The Pagesize property affects the maximum number of results to return per page from Azure Cosmos DB. 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, "*=*".

RequestPriorityLevel¶

Specifies the priority for the request sent to Azure Cosmos DB, when there are more requests than the configured RU/s in a second.

Possible Values¶

None, Low, High

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

None

Remarks¶

• None: Set this to send requests with the default priority.
• Low: Set this to send low priority requests.
• High: Set this to send high priority requests.

RowScanDepth¶

The maximum number of rows to scan to look for the columns available in a table.

Data Type¶

int

Default Value¶

100

Remarks¶

The columns in a table must be determined by scanning table rows. This value determines the maximum number of rows that will be scanned.

Setting a high value may decrease performance. Setting a low value may prevent the data type from being determined properly, especially when there is null data.

SeparatorCharacter¶

The character or characters used to denote hierarchy.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

.

Remarks¶

In order to flatten out hierarchical structures, the connector needs some specifier that states the path to a column through the hierarchy. If this value is "." and a column comes back with the name address.city, this indicates that there is a mapped attribute with a child called city. If your data has columns that already use a single period within the attribute name, set the SeparatorCharacter to a different character or characters.

SetPartitionKeyAsPK¶

Whether or not to use the collection's Partition Key field as part of composite Primary Key for the corresponding exposed table.

Data Type¶

bool

Default Value¶

true

Remarks¶

By default, this is set to TRUE, and the collection's Partition Key is used as part of the table's composite Primary Key along with the _rid column. If this is set to FALSE, only the _rid column will serve as the Primary Key for the exposed table.

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.

TypeDetectionScheme¶

Comma-separated options for how the provider will scan the data to determine the fields and datatypes in each document collection.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

RowScan,Recent

Remarks¶

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 [].[Entities].Customers 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.

UseRidAsPk¶

Set this property to false to switch using the ID column as primary key instead the default _rid.

Data Type¶

bool

Default Value¶

true

Remarks¶

Since CosmosDB allows you to use both _rid and ID fields as unique values for retrieving resource data, you can set this property to false to switch using the ID column as primary key instead the default _rid.

WriteThroughputBudget¶

Defines the Requests Units (RU) budget per Second that the Batch CUD (Create, Update, Delete) operations should not exceed.

Data Type¶

int

Default Value¶

1000

Remarks¶

The connector will dynamically adjust the maximum number of requests per second depending on the configured RU budget. Although the connector always aims to not exceed the RU budget, since the requests throttling logic is applied client-side, it may be exceeded by a relatively small amount in a few cases. These cases include inserting, updating and deleting records with highly variable column count and input value length per column.