Setting Up the Java SDK

The Vertica Java Software Development Kit (SDK) is distributed as part of the server installation. It contains the source and JAR files you need to create your UDx library. For examples that you can compile and run, see Downloading and Running UDx Example Code. For requirements for your development environment, see Setting Up a Development Environment.

To use the SDK you need two files from the Java support package:

• /opt/vertica/bin/VerticaSDK.jar contains the Vertica Java SDK and other supporting files.
• /opt/vertica/sdk/BuildInfo.java contains version information about the SDK. You must compile this file and include it within your Java UDx JAR files.

If you are not doing your development on a database node, you can copy these two files from one of the database nodes to your development system.

The BuildInfo.java and VerticaSDK.jar files that you use to compile your UDx must be from the same SDK version. Both files must also match the version of the SDK files on your Vertica hosts. Versioning is only an issue if you are not compiling your UDxs on a Vertica host. If you are compiling on a separate development system, always refresh your copies of these two files and recompile your UDxs just before deploying them.

Finding the Current SDK Version

You must develop your UDx using the same SDK version as the database in which you plan to use it. To display the SDK version currently installed on your system, run the following command in vsql:

=> SELECT sdk_version();

Compiling BuildInfo.java

You need to compile the BuildInfo.java file into a class file, so you can include it in your Java UDx JAR library. If you are using a Vertica node as a development system, you can either:

• Copy the BuildInfo.java file to another location on your host.
• If you have root privileges, compile the BuildInfo.java file in place. (Only the root user has privileges to write files to the /opt/vertica/sdk directory.)

Compile the file using the following command. Replace path with the path to the file and output-directory with the directory where you will compile your UDxs.

$ javac -classpath /opt/vertica/bin/VerticaSDK.jar \
      /path/BuildInfo.java -d output-directory

If you use an IDE such as Eclipse, you can include the BuildInfo.java file in your project instead of compiling it separately. You must also add the VerticaSDK.jar file to the project's build path. See your IDE's documentation for details on how to include files and libraries in your projects.

Running the Examples

You can download the examples from the GitHub repository (see Downloading and Running UDx Example Code). Compiling and running the examples helps you to ensure that your development environment is properly set up.

If you have not already done so, set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to your JDK (not JRE) directory.

To compile all of the examples, including the Java examples, issue the following command in the Java-and-C++ directory under the examples directory:

$ make

To compile only the Java examples, issue the following command in the Java-and-C++ directory under the examples directory:

$ make JavaFunctions