Access Live ConstantContact Data in TIBCO Data Virtualization

TIBCO Data Virtualization (TDV) is an enterprise data virtualization solution that orchestrates access to multiple and varied data sources. When paired with the CData TIBCO DV Adapter for ConstantContact, you get federated access to live ConstantContact data directly within TIBCO Data Virtualization. This article walks through deploying an adapter and creating a new data source based on ConstantContact.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData TIBCO DV Adapter offers unmatched performance for interacting with live ConstantContact data. When you issue complex SQL queries to ConstantContact, the adapter pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to ConstantContact. Its built-in dynamic metadata querying allows you to work with and analyze ConstantContact data using native data types.

Deploy the ConstantContact TIBCO DV Adapter

1. In a console, navigate to the bin folder in the TDV Server installation directory. If there is a current version of the adapter installed, you will need to undeploy it.

   .\server_util.bat -server localhost -user admin -password ******** -undeploy -version 1 -name API
   

2. Extract the CData TIBCO DV Adapter to a local folder and deploy the JAR file (tdv.api.jar) to the server from the extract location.

   .\server_util.bat -server localhost -user admin -password ******** -deploy -package /PATH/TO/tdv.api.jar
   

You may need to restart the server to ensure the new JAR file is loaded properly, which can be accomplished by running the composite.bat script located at: C:\Program Files\TIBCO\TDV Server <version>\bin. Note that reauthenticating to the TDV Studio is required after restarting the server.

Sample Restart Call

.\composite.bat monitor restart

Create a ConstantContact Data Source in TDV Studio

With the CData TIBCO DV Adapter for ConstantContact, you can easily create a data source for ConstantContact and introspect the data source to add resources to TDV.

Create the Data Source

1. Right-click on the folder you wish to add the data source to and select New -> New Data Source.
2. Scroll until you find the adapter (e.g. ConstantContact) and click Next.
3. Name the data source (e.g. CData ConstantContact Source).

4. Fill in the required connection properties.

   Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the ConstantContact Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\ConstantContact.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Profile (see below).

   ConstantContact API Profile Settings

   ConstantContact uses OAuth-based authentication.

   First, you will need to register an OAuth application with ConstantContact. You can do so from the ConstantContact API Guide (https://v3.developer.constantcontact.com/api_guide/index.html), under "MyApplications" > "New Application". Your Oauth application will be assigned a client id (API Key) and you can generate a client secret (Secret).

   After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

   • AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
   • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to manage the process to obtain the OAuthAccessToken.
   • OAuthClientId: Set this to the client_id that is specified in you app settings.
   • OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client_secret that is specified in you app settings.
   • CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI you specified in your app settings.
5. Click Create & Close.

Introspect the Data Source

Once the data source is created, you can introspect the data source by right-clicking and selecting Open. In the dashboard, click Add/Remove Resources and select the Tables, Views, and Stored Procedures to include as part of the data source. Click Next and Finish to add the selected ConstantContact tables, views, and stored procedures as resources.

After creating and introspecting the data source, you are ready to work with ConstantContact data in TIBCO Data Virtualization just like you would any other relational data source. You can create views, query using SQL, publish the data source, and more.