Connect to Google Search Results in RapidMiner

This article shows how you can easily integrate the CData JDBC driver for Google Search into your processes in RapidMiner. This article uses the CData JDBC Driver for Google Search to transfer Google Search results to a process in RapidMiner.

Connect to Google Search in RapidMiner as a JDBC Data Source

You can follow the procedure below to establish a JDBC connection to Google Search:

1. Add a new database driver for Google Search: Click Connections -> Manage Database Drivers.
2. In the resulting wizard, click the Add button and enter a name for the connection.
3. Enter the prefix for the JDBC URL: jdbc:googlesearch:
4. Enter the path to the cdata.jdbc.googlesearch.jar file, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
5. Enter the driver class: cdata.jdbc.googlesearch.GoogleSearchDriver
6. Create a new Google Search connection: Click Connections -> Manage Database Connections.
7. Enter a name for your connection.
8. For Database System, select the Google Search driver you configured previously.
9. Enter your connection string in the Host box.

   To search with a Google custom search engine, you need to set the CustomSearchId and ApiKey connection properties.

   To obtain the CustomSearchId property, sign into Google Custom Search Engine and create a new search engine.

   To obtain the ApiKey property, you must enable the Custom Search API in the Google API Console.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

   For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Google Search JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.googlesearch.jar

   Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

   A typical connection string is below:

   CustomSearchId=def456;ApiKey=abc123;
10. Enter your username and password if necessary.

You can now use your Google Search connection with the various RapidMiner operators in your process. To retrieve Google Search results, drag the Retrieve operator from the Operators view. With the Retrieve operator selected, you can then define which table to retrieve in the Parameters view by clicking the folder icon next to the "repository entry." In the resulting Repository Browser, you can expand your connection node to select the desired example set.

Finally, wire the output to the Retrieve process to a result, and run the process to see the Google Search results.