Birst Connect

Birst Connect is a Java application that automates the uploading and processing of data in Birst. Birst Connect runs behind your firewall to access files and data sources at your location. Birst Connect uses HTTPS as the means of transferring this data to Birst. JDBC data sources and SAP ERP are supported.

A few redistributable JDBC drivers are supplied with Birst Connect, but in general you need to acquire the appropriate JDBC driver for your data source.

Birst Connect performs parallel file upload which significantly improves upload performance. Essentially, Birst Connect splits each file into chunks, uploads multiple chunks in parallel, and then puts them all back together.

Birst Connect can be set up to have multiple configurations for the same space. This is useful where multiple data sources are distributed across the network, such that they are not all accessible from a single machine. Having multiple configurations allows users to run separate instances of Birst Connect from different machines within the network.

A task defined with Birst Connect can pull data from several different sources and should be scheduled using Windows Scheduler or a Linux cron job. When pulling data from a database or ODBC data source, users can select entire database tables and views for upload or pull subsets of data via custom SQL select statements. You can also upload files from a URL and S3 objects from Amazon S3.

Live Access Real-Time Connections

Birst Connect is also used to define and establish Live Access real-time connections. See Creating a Live Access Connection. Run Infor Connect as a Windows Service when Live Access connections need to remain active.

Using Birst Connect

Installation and Upgrade Notes

The version of Birst Connect must always match the Birst UI. It is also a best practice to test Birst Connect against the latest Processing Engine version.
Important: When you receive the upgrade email notification for a Birst upgrade, the Birst Team recommends that you download the newer Birst Connect and test it against a copy of your production space.

Birst Connect must run in a location that can access the data that you want to upload and then HTTPS POST that data to the Birst server.

There are no specific hardware requirements for Birst Connect. The processing and memory requirements are small.

Communication runs over HTTPS using TLS 1.2.

The data is gzip compressed and sent in chunks with SHA-256 signatures.

The communication to the JDBC data sources can be encrypted via SSL if the JDBC driver for that data source supports it. The setting is driver specific and can be set in the connection string when using the Generic JDBC driver interface.

When querying from a data source, the data is spooled locally in the temp directory on the client machine. Once the data is uploaded, the local file is deleted. You can change the directory using the -Djava.io.tmpdir flag on the Java command line for Birst Connect.

Birst Connect uses port 443 to connect to Birst servers.

Extract is a single process, there is no specific deployment structure other than access to the data to be uploaded.

If you download the .jnlp file and later change your Birst password, you must download the .jnlp file again. Otherwise you may see a "Digest authentication request failed" error message in the log.

Tasks Notes

Any Birst Connect data source must contain at least two columns. If a source has only one column, Birst will not load it. Similarly, an attempt to upload an empty file will produce an error.
File names should use only alphanumeric, space, hyphen, or underscore characters. Uploads may fail if the file name contains special character Non-alphanumeric value, space, hyphen, and underscore characters such as percent (%), ampersand (&), or plus (+) characters. There is a known issue where Task File names should not use keywords such as "Process". Specifically, when Birst Connect Task Names contain keywords such as 'process' in the name, will process fine via the Birst Connect UI but if the same task is run via the command line, the task will upload and process the data even though the desired outcome is upload only. The work around is to rename the Birst Connect Task so that it does not contain 'process' in the name.
Server name, database name, user name, and generic connection strings can use single-value constant variables. See Creating Variables.
Infor distributes a few JDBC connectors. You may need to supply one for your data source.
Birst Connect supports the following file formats:

Delimited ASCII text (.csv, .txt) files: Column values are separated by a comma, semicolon, tab, or Cntrl character. The first row should ideally contain the column names. Remove any leading and trailing rows that do not contain data prior to uploading the file.
Microsoft Excel(.xls or .xlsx) files: The first row should ideally contain the column names. Remove any leading and trailing rows that do not contain data prior to uploading the file.
Microsoft Accessdatabase (.mdb or .accdb) files.
ZIP (.zip or .zip64) files: A set of source files in one of the above supported formats. The supported ZIP compression methods are store (no compression) and deflate. Only one level of Zip files is supported.

Fetch size is the JDBC fetch size. The defaults are:
Oracle: 1000 rows
MS SQL Server: 10000 rows
Postgres/Redshift: 10000 rows
For all other databases the driver's default fetch size is used.

Use the Java Console to check the status of data being uploaded via Birst Connect. If you have installed Birst Connect as a service, check the Birst Connect log for the status of data being uploaded via Birst Connect at <installDriveAndPath/BirstConnect/logs(<path?/BirstConnect/logs.
If an upload process is interrupted due to network or server issues, Birst Connect attempts to restart the upload where it was interrupted. If after 5 attempts it cannot resume the upload, Birst Connect will stop trying. In this event, you will need to troubleshoot the problem and retry the upload.
Extract group names should not include a percent sign (%).
Birst Connect does not support space names or query names that include the ampersand (&) character.

To use the Birst Connect Java Web Start application

Note: Java Web Start has been deprecated and is no longer officially part of the Java distribution. Starting with the 2022.06 release of Birst, users cannot launch Birst Connect 1 through Java Web Start. To launch Birst Connect 1, use the Command Line version. For more information, see Running Birst Connect from the Command Line.

Go to Admin - Define Sources - Birst Connect.
If you do not see the Birst Connect tab, contact your Account Administrator or your Infor representative.

Click Launch next to the Default configuration or next to the configuration you would like to use.

If your system prompts you to allow the file, click Keep. Then click the file to open it.

If prompted to update Java, do so.

Go back and click Launch again and click the downloaded file to open it.

Click Run when prompted to run the .jnlp file.

Click Run with the latest version on your system and click Continue.

Birst Connect opens with the name and ID of your space in the title bar.
You can define multiple tasks for a single space to run at different scheduled times.

Click Add Task to create a new task. The Properties tab opens.

In the Properties tab, enter the task information.

Task Name: Provide a unique name for the new task. Note: Task Names should not use keywords such as "Process". See Task Notes for more details.

Processing Groups: If you would like to run certain processing groups as part of your Infor Connect task, specify the name of one or more processing groups in the Processing Groups field. If you leave the Processing Groups field blank, all processing groups will be run in the default order.

Enabled: By default, new tasks are enabled. Later, if you want to pause or stop a task without deleting it, uncheck this box.

Process data after uploading: You usually want to designate the last task to also kick off processing of all uploaded data. Note: You will want to enable data sources that are uploaded to an Advance space for the first time before they are processing. Discovery sources are by default enabled upon upload.

Create QuickDashboards after processing:
Important:This feature has been deprecated and does not work in the latest version of Dashboards. This option should not be used.

Consolidate data sources: If different sources need to be consolidated into a single source, check Consolidate Data Sources.

Set load date to date of task run + X days: If the uploaded data needs to be tagged with a snapshot date other than the current date, set the offset accordingly.

Click the Sources tab and enter information to add files, tables/views, custom queries, files from URL data sources, or S3 objects.

To add a file: Click Add File(s) and select the desired file from a network file system.
Tip: File names longer than 30 characters are not supported for Oracle.

To add a table or view: Click Add Table(s), choose the database type and enter the required connection information for the database. See Adding Tables in Birst Connect.
Tip: See notes on drivers and fetch size below.

To add a custom query: Click Add Query, select the new query, then choose the database type and enter the required connection information for the database. Enter the desired SQL Select statement in the Query text box. Click Update.
Tip: See notes on fetch size in Implementation and Usage Notes.
Tip: Birst variables can be used in the WHERE clause of the query. This is especially useful when loading data incrementally. The variable needs to be in the form of V{}, for example: Select * From Products Where Products.Name = V{myVar}. See Configuring Incremental Loading from a Source Database.

To add a URL data source: Click Add URL to download a file (such as an .xls, .txt or .csv file) from a web source. Select the URL entry that is created then provide the relevant information such as the URL, the method to use (GET or POST), and any replacements needed.

To add an object from Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service): Click Add S3 Object, select the new S3 Object entry, and provide the relevant information such as the Credentials File, Bucket Name, Bucket Key, and any replacements needed.

To remove a existing source: Select the source and click Remove.

10.

Important: The built-in scheduler is deprecated and should not be used. The built-in scheduler can be used only when you keep the Java Web Start application running at all times. In cases where the machine executing the schedule is operating in an unattended mode, an external scheduler should be used. See Running Infor Connect Tasks Using an External Scheduler for details.

11.

At the bottom of the screens, click OK. The task you created is listed in the Existing Tasks table.

12.

To run one or more tasks immediately, select the task records and click Run Tasks.