Introduction

SQL for Confluence is a powerful app that provides unlimited potential by allowing users to bring external data into Confluence pages. To make the most of our product, we've prepared this page containing the key concepts and helpful background information. 

Data sources

SQL Macros use data sources to access databases. A data source defines the access parameters including credentials (e.g, UN/PW). To begin using SQL macros and including external data within Confluence pages, your Confluence administrator must first create a data source and/or data source profile. Once created, it is important that your Confluence administrator share the name of the data source with you. Each time you embed a SQL macro on a Confluence page, you are prompted to provide the name of the data source. 

Data sources come in two flavors and as the downstream consumer of them, it's important that you understand their differences.

Table describing data source types:

Data Source Type	Primary Benefit	Key Attributes	Express Edition	Pro Edition
Data source profiles	Convenience	SQL for Confluence specific configuration Convenience: Configuration change in effect immediately File system access not needed Can reference application server defined data sources Recommended for evaluation, testing, or short term scenarios Medium or heavier use scenarios should also employ Cache for Confluence to improve page performance
Application server defined data source	Performance	Application server based configuration Best performance via connection pooling/reuse Requires Confluence restart after a configuration change Recommended for long term or heavy use scenarios

Tables

SQL for Confluence comes pre-packaged with many of the capabilities of Advanced Tables — another popular Bob Swift Marketplace app. Among many other things, this app allows you to send the output of external data that has been retrieved by one or more of our SQL Macros to a table. Tables can be pretty powerful on their own when displaying results from your queries, but our team didn't stop there. Included within SQL for Confluence, you will find 25 of our most popular table parameters to help you format, style, organize and summarize your data. We make it easy for you to interact with table parameters from each of our SQL macro editors. So, what are you waiting for? Go make your spurious tuples in tables look amazing! Try saying that three times fast.  

Charting

Confluence provides native charting capability via its Chart Macro. SQL for Confluence not only supports this macro but has been tightly integrated. So, in a sense, our app knows how to speak chart. By simply wrapping one of our SQL macros with the native Chart macro, you can instantly send SQL output containing your external data to a beautiful chart. Pretty amazing stuff!

SQL parameters

Over the years, we've grown the number of parameter and parameter options that you can flex within our SQL macros. Ideally, we want to provide our users with all the built-in capabilities from the database vendor their data sources are accessing. Understanding that some of these parameters can be sensitive, we also provide the ability for your administrator to control their usage. 

Next up

With key concepts under your belt, we recommend you explore and familiarize yourself with the macros that are shipped with SQL for Confluence.