Connect to AlloyDB Data through External Services in Salesforce

CData Connect Cloud, enables you to access AlloyDB data from cloud-based applications like the Salesforce console and mobile applications like the Salesforce Mobile App. In this article, you will use CData Connect Cloud to access AlloyDB data through Salesforce External Services.

Connect to AlloyDB from Salesforce

To work with live AlloyDB data in Salesforce Connect, we need to connect to AlloyDB from Connect Cloud, provide user access to the connection, and create OData endpoints for the AlloyDB data.

(Optional) Add a New Connect Cloud User

As needed, create Users to connect to AlloyDB through Connect Cloud.

1. Navigate to the Users page and click Invite Users
2. Enter the new user's email address and click Send to invite the user
3. You can review and edit users from the Users page

Add a Personal Access Token

If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
2. On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give your PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

Connect to AlloyDB from Connect Cloud

CData Connect Cloud uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "AlloyDB" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to AlloyDB.

   The following connection properties are usually required in order to connect to AlloyDB.

   • Server: The host name or IP of the server hosting the AlloyDB database.
   • User: The user which will be used to authenticate with the AlloyDB server.
   • Password: The password which will be used to authenticate with the AlloyDB server.

   You can also optionally set the following:

   • Database: The database to connect to when connecting to the AlloyDB Server. If this is not set, the user's default database will be used.
   • Port: The port of the server hosting the AlloyDB database. This property is set to 5432 by default.

   Authenticating with Standard Authentication

   Standard authentication (using the user/password combination supplied earlier) is the default form of authentication.

   No further action is required to leverage Standard Authentication to connect.

   Authenticating with pg_hba.conf Auth Schemes

   There are additional methods of authentication available which must be enabled in the pg_hba.conf file on the AlloyDB server.

   Find instructions about authentication setup on the AlloyDB Server here.

   Authenticating with MD5 Authentication

   This authentication method must be enabled by setting the auth-method in the pg_hba.conf file to md5.

   Authenticating with SASL Authentication

   This authentication method must be enabled by setting the auth-method in the pg_hba.conf file to scram-sha-256.

   Authenticating with Kerberos

   The authentication with Kerberos is initiated by AlloyDB Server when the ∏ is trying to connect to it. You should set up Kerberos on the AlloyDB Server to activate this authentication method. Once you have Kerberos authentication set up on the AlloyDB Server, see the Kerberos section of the help documentation for details on how to authenticate with Kerberos.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add AlloyDB Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Create an OpenAPI File for AlloyDB

After connecting to AlloyDB, create a workspace and virtual dataset for your desired table(s).

1. Navigate to the Virtual Datasets page and click Add to create a new Workspace (or select an existing workspace).
2. Click Add to add new assets to the Workspace.
3. Select the AlloyDB connection (e.g. AlloyDB1) and click Next.
4. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm.
5. Configure the Open API options:
   • Set Version to "3.0"
   • Set Convert array types to strings to off
6. Click Download to download the OpenAI JSON file.

With the connection configure and OpenAPI file downloaded, you are ready to connect to AlloyDB data from Salesforce External Services.

Connect to AlloyDB Data as an External Service

Follow the steps below to connect to the OpenAPI produced by Connect Cloud.

1. Log into Salesforce and navigate to Salesforce Setup.
2. Select Platform Tools -> Integrations -> External Services.
3. Click Add an External Service.
4. Click Select an API source from API Specification and click Next.
5. In Provide Registration Details, enter the following:
   • External Service Name — an identifying name for your external service.
   • Description — a description of your external service.
   • Service Schema — select Upload from local.
   • Select a Named Credential — select the named credential you created.
6. Upload the JSON file you downloaded from CData Connect.
7. If the schema validation was successful, click Save & Next.

8. The next step is Select Operations. These operations are all the actions of the connector that are contained in the OpenAPI specification file. The actions include all the functions you need for the table, including list, get, create, update, and delete records. The actions include a description, input parameters, and output parameters.

   The input parameters are appended to the URL, such as $top, $filter, and $orderby. See API Operations for a complete parameter reference. The input parameters are based on OData filtering.

   Select the operations you want to include in the external service.

9. Review the actions for your external service, including the input and output parameters. If you need to change input or output parameters, you need to edit the OpenAPI specification file.
10. Click Finish. Your external service appears in the list of external services for Salesforce and is now available to build flows.

Simplified Access to AlloyDB Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live AlloyDB data from Salesforce. For more information on gaining simplified access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources in cloud applications like Salesforce, refer to our Connect Cloud page.