ElasticSearch Connector for Informatica Read / write ElasticSearch data inside your app; perform many ElasticSearch operations without coding, just use easy to use high performance API Connector for ElasticSearch In this article you will learn how to quickly and efficiently integrate ElasticSearch data in Informatica without coding. We will use high-performance ElasticSearch Connector to easily connect to ElasticSearch and then access the data inside Informatica. Let's follow the steps below to see how we can accomplish that! Download Documentation ElasticSearch Connector for Informatica is based on ZappySys API Driver which is part of ODBC PowerPack. It is a collection of high-performance ODBC drivers that enable you to integrate data in SQL Server, SSIS, a programming language, or any other ODBC-compatible application. ODBC PowerPack supports various file formats, sources and destinations, including REST/SOAP API, SFTP/FTP, storage services, and plain files, to mention a few.

Connect to ElasticSearch in other apps Connect to ElasticSearch in SSIS Connect to ElasticSearch in SQL Server Connect to ElasticSearch in Power BI Connect to ElasticSearch in SSRS Connect to ElasticSearch in MS Access Connect to ElasticSearch in MS Excel Connect to ElasticSearch in SSAS Connect to ElasticSearch in C# Connect to ElasticSearch in Python Connect to ElasticSearch in JAVA Connect to ElasticSearch in Tableau Connect to ElasticSearch in SAP Crystal Reports Connect to ElasticSearch in Azure Data Factory (Pipeline) Connect to ElasticSearch in Azure Data Factory (SSIS) Connect to ElasticSearch in Talend Studio Connect to ElasticSearch in UiPath Connect to ElasticSearch in PowerShell Connect to ElasticSearch in ODBC

Introduction

JSON / REST API is becoming more and more popular each day as everyone embrace cloud-centric services. This article is primarily focused on Informatica users who want to access ElasticSearch data or may be other API Integration in Informatica. However many tips and techniques described in this article will help you to understand how to integrate ElasticSearch / XML SOAP / JSON / REST API in other ETL / Reporting apps such as Tableau, Power BI, SSRS, Talend, Excel and many more.

After going through this article you will learn how to Read ElasticSearch / JSON / REST API data in Informatica and understand the concept of JSON / REST API. We will go through many screenshots and step-by-step examples to demonstrate  ElasticSearch or REST API integration in Informatica PowerCenter.

XML / JSON can come from a local file or REST API service (internal or public) so we will include both examples in this article (i.e. Read JSON files in Informatica,  Import REST API in Informatica). So let’s get started. Next article will focus on how to write data to API in Informatica (POST / PUT data)

Requirements

This article assumes that you have full filled following basic requirements.

1. Download Install ZappySys ODBC PowerPack (API Driver for ElasticSearch included)
2. Install Informatica PowerCenter Client Tools (e.g. Workflow and Mapping Designers)
3. Access to a Relational database such as SQL Server (or use any of your choice e.g. Oracle, MySQL, DB2 ). If nothing available then you can use flat file target.

High level Steps for Import ElasticSearch data using Informatica (Read ElasticSearch API data)

Before we dive deep to learn how to load ElasticSearch data in Informatica (i.e. ElasticSearch to SQL Table), Here the summary of high-level steps you need to perform to import ElasticSearch in Informatica (same steps for Import JSON / XML / REST API).

1. Download and Install ZappySys API Driver (for connecting to ElasticSearch)
2. Create ODBC DSN using ZappySys API driver and choose ElasticSearch Connector during Wizard
3. Create Relational > ODBC Connection in Informatica Workflow designer (Point to DSN we created in the previous step)
4. Import ElasticSearch Source Definition in the Informatica Mapping Designer > Sources Tab
5. Import Target Table Definition in the Informatica Mapping Designer > Targets Tab
6. Create source to target mapping in Mappings tab
7. Save mapping (name m_API_to_SQL_Load )
8. Create Session using the mapping we created in the previous step
9. Save Workflow and execute to load ElasticSearch data into SQL Table. Verify your data and log.
   

   Loading ElasticSearch data to SQL Table in Informatica (Import REST API or JSON Files)

Video Tutorial – Read any API / JSON data in Informatica (Load ElasticSearch to SQL Table)

Getting Started – Import ElasticSearch to SQL Server in Informatica

Now let’s get started. For example purpose, we will read data from ElasticSearch and load data into SQL Server Table using Informatica Workflow.

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

Step-by-step instructions

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

1. Download and install ODBC PowerPack.

2. Open ODBC Data Sources (x64):

   

3. Create a User data source (User DSN) based on ZappySys API Driver

   ZappySys API Driver

   
   • Create and use User DSN if the client application is run under a User Account. This is an ideal option in design-time, when developing a solution, e.g. in Visual Studio 2019. Use it for both type of applications - 64-bit and 32-bit.
   • Create and use System DSN if the client application is launched under a System Account, e.g. as a Windows Service. Usually, this is an ideal option to use in a production environment. Use ODBC Data Source Administrator (32-bit), instead of 64-bit version, if Windows Service is a 32-bit application.

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.

    Basic Authentication (UserId/Password) [Http]

   Steps how to get and use ElasticSearch credentials
   

   For Local / Hosted Instance by you

   1. Get your userid / password and enter on the connection UI

   For Managed Instance (By Bonsai search)

   If your instance is hosted by bonsai then perform these steps to get your credentials for API call

   1. Go to https://app.bonsai.io/clusters/{your-instance-id}/tokens
   2. Copy Access Key and Access Secret and enter on the connection UI. Click Test connection.
   3. If your Cluster has no data you can generate sample data by visiting this URL and click Add Sample Data https://{your-cluster-id}.apps.bonsaisearch.net/app/home#/tutorial_directory

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

   ElasticsearchDSN

   ElasticSearch

   Basic Authentication (UserId/Password) [Http]

   http://localhost:9200

   Optional Parameters
   User Name (or Access Key)
   Password (or Access Secret)
   Ignore certificate related errors

   

    Windows Authentication (No Password) [Http]

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

   ElasticsearchDSN

   ElasticSearch

   Windows Authentication (No Password) [Http]

   http://localhost:9200

   Optional Parameters
   Ignore certificate related errors

   

6. Once the data source connection has been configured, it's time to configure the SQL query. Select the Preview tab and then click Query Builder button to configure the SQL query:

   

   ZappySys API Driver - 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

   ElasticsearchDSN

   

7. Start by selecting the Table or Endpoint you are interested in and then configure the parameters. This will generate a query that we will use in Informatica to retrieve data from ElasticSearch. Hit OK button to use this query in the next step.

   SELECT * FROM Indexes

   
   Some parameters configured in this window will be passed to the ElasticSearch API, e.g. filtering parameters. It means that filtering will be done on the server side (instead of the client side), enabling you to get only the meaningful data much faster.

8. Now hit Preview Data button to preview the data using the generated SQL query. If you are satisfied with the result, use this query in Informatica:

   

   ZappySys API Driver - 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

   ElasticsearchDSN

   SELECT * FROM Indexes

   
   You can also access data quickly from the tables dropdown by selecting <Select table>.
   A WHERE clause, LIMIT keyword will be performed on the client side, meaning that the whole result set will be retrieved from the ElasticSearch API first, and only then the filtering will be applied to the data. If possible, it is recommended to use parameters in Query Builder to filter the data on the server side (in ElasticSearch servers).

9. Click OK to finish creating the data source.

Video Tutorial

Create Connection in Informatica Workflow Designer

Once you create DSN using API Driver our next step is to define a connection for ElasticSearch source in Informatica PowerCenter Workflow designer.

1. Open Workflow designer [W] icon
2. Goto Connections > Relational
   

   Create a new connection for ElasticSearch in Informatica

3. Click New and select ODBC
   

   Select ODBC connection type in Informatica (Using ZappySys API ODBC DSN)

4. Now on the ODBC connection setup enter connection name, some fake userid / password (this is a required field but its ignored by JSON Driver)
5. In the Connection String field enter the exact same name of DSN (Open ODBC Data Sources UI to confirm)
   

   Configure ElasticSearch connection in Informatica for REST API – Using ZappySys API Driver

6. Click OK to close the connection properties.

That’s it. Now we ready to move to next step (define source and target in Mapping Designer).

Import ElasticSearch Source Definition in Informatica Mapping Designer

Now let’s look at steps to import ElasticSearch table definition.

1. Open Informatica Mapping Designer (Click [D] icon)
2. Click on Source Icon to switch to Sources designer
3. From the top menu > Click on Sources > Import from Database …
   

   Import ElasticSearch Source definition in Informatica Mapping Designer (JSON file or REST API)

4. Select ODBC data source from the dropdown (Find out DSN we created earlier to use as JSON Source)
5. Click Connect button to get a list of tables. Any array node is listed as a table. Also, you will see array node with parent columns (e.g. value_with_parent). You may get some warning like below but they are harmless so just ignore by clicking OK.
   
   DLL name entry missing from C:\Informatica\PowerCenter8.6.1\client\bin\powrmart.ini Section = ODBCDLL Entry = ZappySys JSON Driver
   —————————————————-
   Using EXTODBC.DLL to support ZappySys JSON Driver. For native support of ZappySys JSON Driver make an entry in the .ini file.
   

   Select ElasticSearch Source Table in Informatica Mapping Designer (JSON file or REST API)

6. Select Table you wish to get (You can filter rows by custom SQL query. We will see later in this article how to do)
7. Optionally once table structure is imported you can rename it
   

   Rename imported table definition in Informatica Source Designer

8. That’s it, we are now ready to perform similar steps to import Target table structure in the next section.

Import SQL Server Target Definition in Informatica Mapping Designer

Now let’s look at steps to import Target table definition (very similar to the previous section, the only difference is this time we will select DSN which points to SQL Server or any other Target Server).

Now lets look at steps to import target table definition in Informatica mapping designer.

1. In the Mapping Designer, Click on Target Icon to switch to Target designer
2. From the top menu > Click on Targets > Import from Database …
3. Select DSN for your Target server (if DSN doesn’t exist then create one by opening ODBC Sources just like we created one for JSON API source (see the previous section about creating DSN).
   

   Import target Table Definition in informatica

4. Enter your userid , password and Schema name and click Connect to see tables
5. Select Table name to and click OK import definition.
   

   Import Target SQL Table Definition in Informatica – Select table from the list

Create Source to Target Mapping in Informatica (Import JSON to SQL Server)

Once you have imported source and target table definition, we can create mapping and transformation to load data from JSON to SQL Table.

1. First open Mapping Designer (Click [D] icon)
2. Drag JSON Source from sources folder
3. Drag SQL Table from Targets folder
4. Map desired columns from Source to target
   

   Define Source to Target mapping for ElasticSearch to SQL Table load in Informatica

5. For certain columns you may have to do datatype conversion. For example to convert OrderDate form nstring to DataTime you have to use Expression Transform like below and map it to target. In below example, our JSON has date format (e.g. 2018-01-31 12:00:00 AM ). To import this to DateTime field in SQL server we need to convert it using TO_DATE function. Use double quotes around T to make this format working.
   

   TO_DATE(OrderDate,'YYYY-MM-DD H12:MI:SS AM')
   
    --For ISO use below way
           TO_DATE(OrderDate,'YYYY-MM-DD"T"HH24:MI:SS')

   

   Informatica ElasticSearch to SQL Table Mapping – Datatype conversion (nstring to datetime)

6. Once you done with mapping save your mapping and name it (i.e. m_Api_To_SQL)
7. Now lets move to next section to create workflow.

Create Workflow and Session in Informatica

Now the final step is to create a new workflow. Perform following steps to create workflow which with a session task to import JSON data into SQL table.

1. Open workflow designer by click [W] icon.
2. Launch new workflow creation wizard by click Workflow top menu >  Wizard
   name your workflow (e.g. wf_Api_Tp_Sql_Table_Import)
   

   Creating Informatica Workflow – Wizard UI (Import ElasticSearch data to SQL Table)

3. Finish the wizard and double-click the Session to edit some default properties.
4. First change Error settings so we fail session on error (By default its always green)
   

   Fail Informatica Session on error (ElasticSearch data to SQL Load)

5. Select JSON connection for Source
   

   Select ElasticSearch Source Connection in Informatica – Load ElasticSearch data to SQL Table

6. Change default Source query if needed. You can pass parameters to this query to make it dynamic.
   

   Modify ElasticSearch Source SQL query – Pass parameters, change URL, set filter etc

7. Select Target connection of SQL Target Table
   

   Select SQL Target Connection in Informatica – Load ElasticSearch data to SQL Table

8. Save workflow
9. That’s it. We ready to run our first workflow to load JSON data to SQL.

Execute Workflow and Validate Log in Informatica

Now once you are done with your workflow, execute it to see the log.

Loading ElasticSearch data to SQL Table in Informatica (Import REST API or JSON Files)

POST data to ElasticSearch in Informatica

There will be a time when you like to send Source data to REST API or SOAP Web Service. You can use below Query for example. For detailed explanation on how to POST data in Informatica check this article .

Video Tutorial – How to POST data to REST API in Informatica

Here is detailed step by step video on REST API POST in informatica PowerCenter

Keywords

how to import ElasticSearch in informatica | how to read ElasticSearch data in informatica powercenter | how to test json from informatica | how to use ElasticSearch data as source in informatica power center | how to connect ElasticSearch in informatica 10 | informatica how to import data from ElasticSearch | informatica jtx to import ElasticSearch (use of java transformation) | informatica plugin for restful api using json | informatica power center and ElasticSearch support | informatica read ElasticSearch | informatica rest api | informatica ElasticSearch connector | json parser import informatica

Actions supported by ElasticSearch Connector

Learn how to perform common ElasticSearch actions directly in Informatica with these how-to guides:

• Count documents
• Create Index
• Delete documents
• Delete Index
• Get document by ID from Index or Alias
• Get documents from Index or Alias
• Get Index or Alias metadata
• Insert documents
• List aliases
• List indexes
• Search / Query documents
• Update documents
• Upsert documents
• Generic Request
• Generic Request (Bulk Write)

Conclusion

In this article we showed you how to connect to ElasticSearch in Informatica and integrate data without any coding, saving you time and effort. It's worth noting that ZappySys API Driver allows you to connect not only to ElasticSearch, but to any Java application that supports JDBC (just use a different JDBC driver and configure it appropriately).

We encourage you to download ElasticSearch Connector for Informatica and see how easy it is to use it for yourself or your team.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact ZappySys support team. You can also open a live chat immediately by clicking on the chat icon below.

Download ElasticSearch Connector for Informatica Documentation

More integrations

Other connectors for Informatica

Amazon Ads

Amazon Athena

Amazon Selling Partner (SP-API)

Apache Derby

Apache Hive

Apache Spark

Asana

Azure DevOps

Cosmos DB

DropBox

FastSpring

Google Ads

Google BigQuery

Google Calendar

Google Drive

Google Sheets

Hubspot

Infor Data Lake

Jira

Mailchimp

ManagedEngine ServiceDesk Plus (Zoho)

MariaDB

OData

OneDrive

Outlook Mail (Office 365)

Power BI

ServiceNow

SharePoint Online

Shopify

Smartsheet

Starburst

Stripe

Trino

YouTube

Zendesk

Zoho CRM

Zoho SalesIQ

Zoom

REST API

JSON

JSON File

XML

SOAP

XML File

JDBC-ODBC Bridge

Salesforce

CSV

Amazon S3 JSON File

Amazon S3 XML File

Amazon S3 CSV File

Azure Blob JSON File

Azure Blob XML File

Azure Blob CSV File

FTP/SFTP JSON File

FTP/SFTP XML File

FTP/SFTP CSV File

Build your own Custom API Connector

Other application integration scenarios for ElasticSearch

SSIS

SQL Server

Power BI

SSRS

MS Access

MS Excel

SSAS

C#

Python

JAVA

Tableau

SAP Crystal Reports

Azure Data Factory (Pipeline)

Azure Data Factory (SSIS)

Talend Studio

UiPath

PowerShell

ODBC

Common Searches: