cassanda_access_with_squirrel_sql.md

Purpose

Set up a GUI client application for Cassandra

Preparation

• Make sure you have Java 11 or newer (and set as default Java). (Otherwise you will get an error message when you try to add the driver in SQuirreL SQL.)
• Download the driver

wget https://dbschema.com/jdbc-drivers/CassandraJdbcDriver.zip

(Go to https://dbschema.com/cassandra-jdbc-driver.html there you will find the link for the driver: "Alternative you may download the Cassandra driver using this link.")

• unzip contents of the driver zip to any directory of your choice (I created /opt/CassandraJdbcDriver and unzipped contents there)
• Install SQuirrelSQL (see e.g. https://sourceforge.net/projects/squirrel-sql/)

Configuration

• Run SQuirrelSQL
• Select menu item Windows -> View Drivers
• In the Drivers section click the + (plus) icon
• Fill in the following (recommended) values:
  Name: Cassandra JDBC Driver (dbschema.com)
Example URL: jdbc:cassandra://host1[:port1][,host2[:port2],...[,hostN[:portN]]][/[keyspace][?options]]
Website URL: https://dbschema.com/cassandra-jdbc-driver.html
• Click the Extra Class Path tab
• Click the Add button
• Select your directory where you unzipped the downloaded drivers and add all the .jar files
• Still in this dialog, at the bottom set Class Name to com.dbschema.CassandraJdbcDriver
• Click OK to close the dialog.

Note: the example URL is documented at the driver's website, the class name can be found from the drivers's source code (which is linked from the driver's website).

Creating a connection

• Select menu item Windows -> View Aliases
• In the Aliases section click the + (plus) icon
• Enter your connection details. In the simplest case the URL may be e.g. jdbc:cassandra://host where host is the hostname of the DB server. Otherwise please refer to the Example URL above.
• You may test your connection clicking the Test button, it should succeed.
• Click OK to close the dialog.

Using the connection

• Double click the connection to connet it
• Go to the SQL tab, enter your statement e.g. select ...
• Ctrl + Enter to run the query (or click the corresponding icon)

Thanks for the detailed instructions. I wasn't able to connect to DSE Cassandra using SQuirrelSQL v4.3.0 with the example URL format above, but this worked for me: jdbc:c*://host/keyspace