Cloudant Connection

See the Connector Marketplace topic. Please request your administrator to start a trial or subscribe to the Premium Cloudant connector.

Cloudant is a distributed database service for web and mobile applications, based on Apache CouchDB.

This topic describes how to authenticate to Cloudant and configure any necessary connection properties in the Cloudant connection connector.

Connection Configuration #

Each connection property available in the Cloudant connector is explained below.

Connection Name #

The name of the connection to be created should be provided. This is the name that will display on the list of available connections.

Auth Scheme #

The type of authentication to use when connecting to Cloudant.

Possible Values

• Basic: Set this to use BASIC user / password authentication.

• OAuth: Set this to perform OAuth authentication. For this method you will need the APIKey and URL of Cloudant instance.

• Auto: Lets the connector decide automatically based on the other connection properties you have set.

URL #

The URL used to connect to the Cloudant.

The HTTP or HTTPS URL used to connect to the Cloudant in the format:

https://{instance id}-bluemix.cloudantnosqldb.appdomain.cloud

Or, in case of self hosting server:

http[s]://{server}:{port}

User #

The Cloudant user account used to authenticate.

Password #

The password used to authenticate the user.

API Key #

The API Key used to identify the user to IBM Cloud.

Access to resources in the Cloudant REST API is governed by an API key in order to retrieve token.

An API Key can be created by navigating to Manage –> Access (IAM) –> Users and clicking ‘Create’.

Initiate OAuth #

Set this property to initiate the process to obtain or refresh the OAuth access token when you connect.

The following options are available:

• OFF: Indicates that the OAuth flow will be handled entirely by the user. An OAuthAccessToken will be required to authenticate.

• GETANDREFRESH: Indicates that the entire OAuth Flow will be handled by the connector. If no token currently exists, it will be obtained by prompting the user via the browser. If a token exists, it will be refreshed when applicable.

• REFRESH: Indicates that the connector will only handle refreshing the OAuthAccessToken. The user will never be prompted by the connector to authenticate via the browser. The user must handle obtaining the OAuthAccessToken and OAuthRefreshToken initially.

Access Token #

The access token for connecting using OAuth.

The OAuthAccessToken is retrieved from the OAuth server as part of the authentication process. It has a server-dependent timeout and can be reused between requests.

Refresh Token #

The OAuth refresh token for the corresponding OAuth access token.

Add Configuration: Additional properties can be added using this option as key-value pairs.

After entering all the details, click on the TEST button.

If the connection service identification and authentication details are provided correctly, a success message stating “connection available” is generated.

Click on the CREATE button to save the changes.

If the details are incorrect or the server is down, you will get a message “Connection unavailable”.