Creating a connection

Creating a database connection

Before you begin

You have selected the Profiling perspective.
You have read What you need to know about some databases carefully.

About this task

When you create a connection from the Profiling perspective, the connection is also created in the Integration perspective under Metadata > DB connections.

Procedure

In the DQ Repository tree view, expand Metadata, right-click DB Connections and select Create DB Connection.
In the Name field, enter a name for this new database connection.
Do not use spaces in the connection name.

Information noteImportant:
Do not use the following special characters in the item names: ~ ! ` # ^ * & \\ / ? : ; \ , . ( ) ¥ ' " « » < >

These characters are all replaced with "_" in the file system and you may end up creating duplicate items.
Optional: Set other connection metadata (Purpose, Description, and Author) in the corresponding fields.
The Database Connection wizard opens.
Click Next.
From the DB Type drop-down list, select the type of database to which you want to connect. For example, MySQL.

Information noteNote: To connect to a database that is not supported in Talend Studio (using the ODBC or JDBC methods), it is recommended to use the Java engine to execute the column analyses created on the selected database. For more information on column analyses, see Defining the columns to be analyzed; on the Java engine, see Using the Java or the SQL engine.
In the DB Version field, select the version of the database to which you are creating the connection.
Enter your login, password, server, and port information in their corresponding fields.
In the Database field, enter the database to which you are connecting.
When you need to connect to all of the catalogs within one connection, if the database allows you to, leave this field empty.
Click the Check button to verify if your connection is successful.
When you have not installed the database driver (.jar file) necessary to use the database, you see a wizard prompting you to install the relative third-party module. Click Download and Install and then close the wizard.

For further information about identifying and installing external modules, see Installing external modules to Talend Studio or click the How to install a driver link in the wizard.

For further information about the Module view, see Displaying the Modules view.
Optional: Export your connection as a context and centralize it under the Context node in the Integration perspective.
This lets you reuse this context in the data quality analyses that use the current connection. You can also create different context parameters for the same connection and later choose to execute an analysis on one specific context. For further information, see Using context variables to connect to data sources.
Click Finish to close the Database Connection wizard.
A folder for the created database connection is displayed under DB Connection in the DQ Repository tree view. The connection editor opens with the defined metadata in Talend Studio.
If you created this connection in a reference project, expand Tables > table name > Columns to select the columns from the main project.

Results

When you created the connection, you can open in Talend Studio a preview of the data in a specific database table. For further information, see Previewing data in the SQL editor.

From the connection editor, you can click:

Connection information to show the connection parameters for the relevant database.
The Check button to check the status of your current connection.
The Edit... button to open the connection wizard and modify any of the connection information.

For information on how to set up a connection to a file, see Connecting to a file.

Creating a connection from a catalog or a schema

You can create a connection on a database catalog or schema directly from a database connection.

Before you begin

You have set at least one database connection in the Profiling perspective of Talend Studio. For further information, see Connecting to a database

Procedure

In the DQ Repository tree view, expand Metadata > DB Connections and browse to the catalog or schema on which you want to create the connection.
Right-click a catalog or schema and select Create a new connection.

A confirmation message is displayed.
Click OK.

Results

A new connection named after the selected connection and catalog is created under DB Connections.

New connection created under DB connections.

Creating a connection to a custom database

The database connection wizard in Talend Studio lists the databases to which you can create a connection and do profiling and integration processes.

Currently, fewer databases in the list are supported for profiling data. For further information, see What databases are supported from the Profiling perspective and Supported database or business systems for Talend components.

You can still use Talend Studio to connect to a custom unsupported database.

Procedure

Choose JDBC as the database type in the connection wizard.
Fill in the connection parameters.
For further information, see Centralizing JDBC metadata.

What to do next

After you created the connection to a custom database, you can profile and monitor data in this database by using different analyses and indicators, as you do with supported databases. You may need to change, in the Indicator Settings editor, the SQL query template for some indicators, such as the regex indicator where each database has a different function to call. For further information, see Editing a system indicator and Editing a user-defined indicator.

Remember: If you have a problem profiling a custom database even though you use a JDBC connection, the reason may be that some JDBC functions are not implemented by the JDBC driver library. For more information, contact Talend support.

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