SQL Server connector and tables with 'bad' chars like $

Confluent Cloud
1

Hello, I am only new to Confluent so apologies if this is something basic, but definitely grateful for help.

I’m trying to create a SQL Server connector to an on-prem SQL Server running Microsoft Dynamics ERP. Now, for whatever reason, Microsoft loves to name their tables like this “ERP company name $ table name $ GUID for the extension that made this table”. It’s an awful naming convention, but literally means we have tables like this -

  Retail Operations$item$431a74ff32eb123f

I can’t do anything about the table names; this is Microsoft’s product. I also cannot alter the database to make views.

Now, when I specify the table in the SQL Server connector, Confluent (Kafka?) complains the topic has invalid characters. Google’ing reveals ‘$’ is not allowed in a topic name, and the SQL Server connector ‘helpfully’ auto-creates the topic based on the table name. So I can’t proceed unless I can figure this out.

Is there a way to overwrite the auto topic naming? Or can Confluent not replace special characters with, say, underscores?

Any suggestions?

Thank you!