C# ElasticSearch Connector In this article you will learn how to integrate ElasticSearch data to C# (live / bi-directional connection to ElasticSearch). Read / write ElasticSearch data inside your app; perform many ElasticSearch operations without coding, just use easy to use high performance API Connector for ElasticSearch. Using ElasticSearch Connector you will be able to connect, read, and write data from within C#. Follow the steps below to see how we would accomplish that. Download  Help File  Buy  Driver mentioned in this article is part of ODBC PowerPack which is a collection of high-performance Drivers for various API data source (i.e. REST API, JSON, XML, CSV, Amazon S3 and many more). Using familiar SQL query language you can make live connections and read/write data from API sources or JSON / XML / CSV Files inside SQL Server (T-SQL) or your favorite Reporting (i.e. Power BI, Tableau, Qlik, SSRS, MicroStrategy, Excel, MS Access), ETL Tools (i.e. Informatica, Talend, Pentaho, SSIS). You can also call our drivers from programming languages such as JAVA, C#, Python, PowerShell etc. If you are new to ODBC and ZappySys ODBC PowerPack then check the following links to get started. ODBC PowerPack - System Requirements and Installation Getting Started - Using ODBC PowerPack ODBC API Driver Help File

See also Connect ElasticSearch in SSIS Connect ElasticSearch in SQL Server Connect ElasticSearch in Power BI Connect ElasticSearch in SSRS Connect ElasticSearch in Informatica Connect ElasticSearch in MS Access Connect ElasticSearch in MS Excel Connect ElasticSearch in SSAS Connect ElasticSearch in Python Connect ElasticSearch in JAVA Connect ElasticSearch in Tableau Connect ElasticSearch in SAP Crystal Reports Connect ElasticSearch in Azure Data Factory (ADF) Connect ElasticSearch in ODBC

Create ODBC Data Source (DSN) based on ZappySys API Driver

To get data from ElasticSearch using C# we first need to create a DSN (Data Source) which will access data from ElasticSearch. We will later be able to read data using C#. Perform these steps:

1. Install ZappySys ODBC PowerPack.

2. Open ODBC Data Sources (x64):
   

3. Create a User Data Source (User DSN) based on ZappySys API Driver

   ZappySys API Driver

   
   You should create a System DSN (instead of a User DSN) if the client application is launched under a Windows System Account, e.g. as a Windows Service. If the client application is 32-bit (x86) running with a System DSN, use ODBC Data Sources (32-bit) instead of the 64-bit version.

4. When the Configuration window appears give your data source a name if you haven't done that already, then select "ElasticSearch" from the list of Popular Connectors. If "ElasticSearch" is not present in the list, then click "Search Online" and download it. Then set the path to the location where you downloaded it. Finally, click Continue >> to proceed with configuring the DSN:

   ElasticSearchDSN

   ElasticSearch

   

5. Now it's time to configure the Connection Manager. Select Authentication Type, e.g. Token Authentication. Then select API Base URL (in most cases, the default one is the right one). More info is available in the Authentication section.

    Default [Http]

   Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:

   ElasticSearchDSN

   ElasticSearch

   Default [Http]

   http://localhost:9200

   Required Parameters
   Optional Parameters
   UserName	Fill in the parameter...
   Password	Fill in the parameter...

   

6. Once the data source has been configured, you can preview data. Select the Preview tab and use settings similar to the following to preview data:
   

7. Click OK to finish creating the data source.

Read data in C# from the DSN

1. Create a new Console project and use this code to read the data:
   

   "ElasticSearchDSN";

   

2. Press F5 to run the code and read the data:
   

3. Here is the code in text format:

   
   using System;
   using System.Data.Odbc;
   
   namespace ConsoleApp {
       class Program {
           static void Main() {
               var dsn = "ElasticSearchDSN";
               using (var conn = new OdbcConnection(String.Format("DSN={0}", dsn)))
               {
                   conn.Open();
                   var cmd = new OdbcCommand("SELECT * FROM Products", conn);
                   var rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader();
                   while (rdr.Read())
                   {
                       for (int i = 0; i < rdr.FieldCount; i++)
                       {
                               Console.Write("{0}\t", rdr[i]);
                       }
                       Console.WriteLine();
                   }
               }
               Console.ReadKey();
           }
       }
   }
   

4. If you want to avoid being dependent on a DSN and creating multiple DSNs for each platform (x86, x64), then you can use a fully qualified connection string. Simply go to your DSN and copy the Connection String . Then in your C# code, pass the connection string as an argument when calling the OdbcConnection object's constructor, for example:

       
   var connectionString = "DRIVER={ZappySys API Driver};ServiceUrl=https://services.odata.org/V3/Northwind/Northwind.svc;Provider=OData;AuthName=Http;";
   
   using (var conn = new OdbcConnection(connectionString))
   {
       // ...
   }
   

   How to Overcome the Long Connection String Issue

   This issue is typically caused when the connection string includes a long RefreshToken attribute (i.e. RefreshToken=xxxxxxxxxxxx...xxx, especially if it's more than 1,000 characters).

   A good solution is to supply the RefreshToken by a file. Simply copy and paste the RefreshToken into a text file and save it, and then pass that file path in the connection string instead of directly supplying the RefreshToken.

   Here is an example of a connection string that can cause the issue:

   
   var connectionString = "Driver={ZappySys API Driver};RefreshToken=xxxxxxxxxxxx...xxxxxxx;ServiceUrl=...;";
   
   using (var conn = new OdbcConnection(connectionString))
   {
       // ...
   }
   

   Here is an example of a connection string that has resolved the issue by moving the RefreshToken attribute to the file c:\my_refresh_token.txt:

   
   var connectionString = "Driver={ZappySys API Driver};RefreshTokenFile=c:\my_refresh_token.txt;ServiceUrl=...;";
   
   using (connectionString)
   {
       // ...
   }
   

Create Custom Store Procedure in ZappySys Driver

You can create procedures to encapsulate custom logic and then only pass handful parameters rather than long SQL to execute your API call.

Steps to create Custom Store Procedure in ZappySys Driver. You can insert Placeholders anywhere inside Procedure Body. Read more about placeholders here

1. Go to Custom Objects Tab and Click on Add button and Select Add Procedure:
   

2. Enter the desired Procedure name and click on OK:
   

3. Select the created Store Procedure and write the your desired store procedure and Save it and it will create the custom store procedure in the ZappySys Driver:
   Here is an example stored procedure for ZappySys Driver. You can insert Placeholders anywhere inside Procedure Body. Read more about placeholders here
   

   CREATE PROCEDURE [usp_get_orders]
       @fromdate = '<<yyyy-MM-dd,FUN_TODAY>>'
    AS
       SELECT * FROM Orders where OrderDate >= '<@fromdate>';
   

   
   

4. That's it now go to Preview Tab and Execute your Store Procedure using Exec Command. In this example it will extract the orders from the date 1996-01-01:
   

   Exec usp_get_orders '1996-01-01';

   
   

5. Let's generate the SQL Server Query Code to make the API call using store procedure. Go to Code Generator Tab, select language as SQL Server and click on Generate button the generate the code.
   As we already created the linked server for this Data Source, in that you just need to copy the Select Query and need to use the linked server name which we have apply on the place of [MY_API_SERVICE] placeholder.
   

   SELECT * FROM OPENQUERY([MY_API_SERVICE], 'EXEC [usp_get_orders] ''1996-01-01''')

   
   

6. Now go to SQL served and execute that query and it will make the API call using store procedure and provide you the response.
   

Create Custom Virtual Table in ZappySys Driver

ZappySys API Drivers support flexible Query language so you can override Default Properties you configured on Data Source such as URL, Body. This way you don't have to create multiple Data Sources if you like to read data from multiple EndPoints. However not every application support supplying custom SQL to driver so you can only select Table from list returned from driver.

Many applications like MS Access, Informatica Designer wont give you option to specify custom SQL when you import Objects. In such case Virtual Table is very useful. You can create many Virtual Tables on the same Data Source (e.g. If you have 50 URLs with slight variations you can create virtual tables with just URL as Parameter setting.

1. Go to Custom Objects Tab and Click on Add button and Select Add Table:
   

2. Enter the desired Table name and click on OK:
   

3. And it will open the New Query Window Click on Cancel to close that window and go to Custom Objects Tab.

4. Select the created table, Select Text Type AS SQL and write the your desired SQL Query and Save it and it will create the custom table in the ZappySys Driver:
   Here is an example SQL query for ZappySys Driver. You can insert Placeholders also. Read more about placeholders here
   

   SELECT
     "ShipCountry",
     "OrderID",
     "CustomerID",
     "EmployeeID",
     "OrderDate",
     "RequiredDate",
     "ShippedDate",
     "ShipVia",
     "Freight",
     "ShipName",
     "ShipAddress",
     "ShipCity",
     "ShipRegion",
     "ShipPostalCode"
   FROM "Orders"
   Where "ShipCountry"='USA'

   
   

5. That's it now go to Preview Tab and Execute your custom virtual table query. In this example it will extract the orders for the USA Shipping Country only:
   

   SELECT * FROM "vt__usa_orders_only"

   
   

6. Let's generate the SQL Server Query Code to make the API call using store procedure. Go to Code Generator Tab, select language as SQL Server and click on Generate button the generate the code.
   As we already created the linked server for this Data Source, in that you just need to copy the Select Query and need to use the linked server name which we have apply on the place of [MY_API_SERVICE] placeholder.
   

   SELECT * FROM OPENQUERY([MY_API_SERVICE], 'EXEC [usp_get_orders] ''1996-01-01''')

   
   

7. Now go to SQL served and execute that query and it will make the API call using store procedure and provide you the response.
   

Conclusion

In this article we discussed how to connect to ElasticSearch in C# and integrate data without any coding. Click here to Download ElasticSearch Connector for C# and try yourself see how easy it is. If you still have any question(s) then ask here or simply click on live chat icon below and ask our expert (see bottom-right corner of this page).

Download ElasticSearch Connector for C# Documentation 

Actions supported by ElasticSearch Connector

ElasticSearch Connector support following actions for REST API integration. If some actions are not listed below then you can easily edit Connector file and enhance out of the box functionality.

Other App Integration scenarios for ElasticSearch

Other Connectors for C#

Download ElasticSearch Connector for C# Documentation 

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