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Use Java and the Flight SQL package to query data

Use Java and the Flight SQL package to query data stored in an InfluxDB Cloud Serverless bucket.

Get started using Java to query InfluxDB

Write a Java class for a Flight SQL client that connects to InfluxDB Cloud Serverless, executes an SQL query, and retrieves data stored in an InfluxDB Cloud Serverless bucket.

The example uses the Apache Arrow Java implementation (org.apache.arrow) for interacting with Flight database servers like InfluxDB v3.

  • org.apache.arrow: Provides classes and methods for integrating Java applications with Apache Arrow data and protocols.
  • org.apache.arrow.flight.sql: Provides classes and methods for interacting with Flight database servers using Arrow Flight RPC and Flight SQL.
  1. Set up InfluxDB
  2. Install prerequisites
  3. Create the FlightQuery class
  4. Create a query client
  5. Execute a query
  6. Retrieve and process Arrow data

To clone or download the example application that you can run with Docker, see the InfluxCommunity/ArrowFlightClient_Query_Examples repo on GitHub.

Set up InfluxDB

To configure the application for querying InfluxDB Cloud Serverless, you’ll need the following InfluxDB resources:

  • InfluxDB Cloud Serverless bucket
  • InfluxDB Cloud Serverless API token with read permission to the bucket

If you don’t already have an API token and a bucket, see how to set up InfluxDB. If you don’t already have data to query, see how to write data to a bucket.

Install prerequisites

We recommend using Docker and Maven for building and running the Java application and avoiding platform-specific dependency problems.

The example Dockerfile installs compatible versions of Maven and Java JDK in the Docker container, and then runs the Maven commands to download dependencies and compile the application.

Follow the instructions to download and install Docker for your system:

View the Dockerfile

View the Maven pom.xml

Create the FlightQuery class

View FlightQuery.java

  1. In your <PROJECT_ROOT>/src/main/java directory, create the com/influxdb/examples subdirectories for the com.influxdb.examples package.

  2. In the examples directory from the preceding step, create the FlightQuery.java class file. You should have the following directory structure:

    PROJECT_ROOT
    └──src
       └──main
          └──java
             └──com
                └──influxdb
                   └──examples
                      └──FlightQuery.java
    
  3. In FlightQuery.java:

    1. Add the package name:

      package com.influxdb.examples;
      
    2. Add import statements for the following packages. You’ll use classes and methods from these packages in the remaining steps:

      • org.apache.arrow.flight.auth2.BearerCredentialWriter
      • org.apache.arrow.flight.CallHeaders
      • org.apache.arrow.flight.CallStatus
      • org.apache.arrow.flight.grpc.CredentialCallOption
      • org.apache.arrow.flight.Location
      • org.apache.arrow.flight.FlightClient
      • org.apache.arrow.flight.FlightClientMiddleware
      • org.apache.arrow.flight.FlightInfo
      • org.apache.arrow.flight.FlightStream
      • org.apache.arrow.flight.sql.FlightSqlClient
      • org.apache.arrow.flight.Ticket
      • org.apache.arrow.memory.BufferAllocator
      • org.apache.arrow.memory.RootAllocator
      • org.apache.arrow.vector.VectorSchemaRoot
    3. Create a FlightQuery class.

    4. In the FlightQuery class:

      1. Define constants for server credentials.

        • DATABASE_NAME
        • HOST
        • TOKEN

        The example Dockerfile defines environment variables for these credentials.

      2. Create a main() method.

Create a query client

In the FlightQuery.main() method, do the following to create an SQL client that can connect to HOST and DATABASE_NAME:

  1. Construct a gRPC+TLS channel URI with HOST and port 443 for communicating with a gRPC server over TLS.

  2. Instantiate FlightClientMiddleware and define an event callback that inserts the following Flight request metadata header property:

    "database": "DATABASE_NAME"
    
  3. Instantiate a BufferAllocator that sets the memory allowed for the client.

  4. Create a FlightClient with the allocator and gRPC channel.

  5. Instantiate a FlightSqlClient that wraps the FlightClient instance.

Execute a query

In the FlightQuery.main method:

  1. Instantiate a CredentialCallOption with TOKEN as a bearer credential. The result is a credential object that you’ll pass in each request to the server.

  2. Define a string that contains the SQL query to execute–for example:

    String query = "SELECT * FROM home";
    
  3. Call the FlightSqlClient.execute method with the SQL query and the CredentialCallOption.

  4. If successful, the FlightSqlClient.execute method responds with a FlightInfo object that contains metadata and an endpoints: [...] list. Each endpoint contains the following:

    • A list of addresses where you can retrieve the data.
    • A ticket value that identifies the data to retrieve.
  5. Extract the ticket from the response.

Retrieve and process Arrow data

In the FlightQuery.main() method, do the following to retrieve the data stream described in the FlightInfo response:

  1. Call the FlightSqlClient.getStream method with the ticket and the CredentialCallOption to fetch the Arrow stream.

  2. Call the FlightStream.getRoot method to get the current vector data from the stream.

  3. Process the data and handle exceptions. The example converts the vector data into tab-separated values and prints the result to System.out.

    For more examples using Java to work with Arrow data, see the Apache Arrow Java Cookbook.

  4. Finally, close the stream and client.

Run the application

Follow these steps to build and run the application using Docker:

  1. Copy the Dockerfile and pom.xml to your project root directory.

  2. Open a terminal in your project root directory.

  3. In your terminal, run the docker build command and pass --build-arg flags for the server credentials:

    docker build \
    --build-arg DATABASE_NAME=INFLUX_BUCKET \
    --build-arg HOST=cloud2.influxdata.com \
    --build-arg TOKEN=INFLUX_TOKEN \
    -t javaflight .
    

    The command builds a Docker image named javaflight.

  4. To run the application in a new Docker container, enter the following command:

    docker run javaflight
    

    The output is the query data in TSV-format.

Troubleshoot Arrow Flight requests

For the list of Arrow Flight error response codes, see the Arrow Flight RPC documentation.


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