astra_gocql_connect

Sample gocql code to connect to a DataStax Astra database.

This code was created in response to a post on the DataStax Community site "How do I connect to Astra with the gocql driver?".

Build

Satisfy the required Prerequisites in the next section.

Download astra_gocql_connect.go then build it with:

$ go build astra_gocql_connect.go

Finally, run the executable:

$ ./astra_gocql_connect

Prerequisites

1. To compile and run the code, download and install the Go language from https://golang.org/.

2. Install the gocql driver:

   $ go get github.com/gocql/gocql
   

3. An Astra database. Launching an Apache Cassandra™ database only takes a few clicks.

   It's free to try with no credit card required. Visit https://www.datastax.com/products/datastax-astra-beta for details.

4. Download the secure connect bundle for your Astra database.

   Unzip your copy of secure-connect-your_astra_db.zip which will contain the following files:

   ca.crt
   cert
   cert.pfx
   config.json
   cqlshrc
   identity.jks
   key
   trustStore.jks
   

   You will need these files to configure the SSL/TLS options.

   The cqlshrc file contains the connection details for _cqlshrc_host and _cqlshrc_port in the code. Here is an example:

   [connection]
   hostname = 31fecf38-2491-4d43-b6ce-22562679f1b8-us-east1.db.astra.datastax.com
   port = 34567
   ssl = true
   

5. To run the sample code as-is, create the table cities_by_rank. Note that you can use your own keyspace so modify the code accordingly.

   CREATE KEYSPACE community WITH replication = {'class': 'NetworkTopologyStrategy', 'caas-dc': '1'};
   

   CREATE TABLE community.cities_by_rank (
       rank int PRIMARY KEY,
       city text,
       country text
   );
   

   Load the data in cities_by_rank.csv using the cqlsh COPY FROM command:

   cqlsh> COPY cities_by_rank (rank,city,country) FROM './cities_by_rank.csv' WITH header = true;
   

Sample data

The CSV file contains the top 10 most liveable cities of 2019 rated by The Independent.

 rank | city       | country
------+------------+-----------
    1 |     Vienna |   Austria
    2 |  Melbourne | Australia
    3 |     Sydney | Australia
    4 |      Osaka |     Japan
    5 |    Calgary |    Canada
    6 |  Vancouver |    Canada
    7 |    Toronto |    Canada
    8 |      Tokyo |     Japan
    9 | Copenhagen |   Denmark
   10 |   Adelaide | Australia

Source: Helen Coffey, 'This is the world's most liveable city', The Independent, 4 September 2019 (accessed 2 May 2020), https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/vienna-city-best-quality-life-study-ranked-austria-sydney-melbourne-osaka-a9091016.html

Credit

Huge thanks to @dougwettlaufer from DataStax Cloud Engineering for his help with the solution.

Contact us

If you have any questions, hit me up at DataStax Community. Cheers!