Access Live Dropbox 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 Dropbox, you get federated access to live Dropbox data directly within TIBCO Data Virtualization. This article walks through deploying an adapter and creating a new data source based on Dropbox.

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

Deploy the Dropbox 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 Dropbox
   

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

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

Authenticate with Dropbox Using OAuth

Since Dropbox authenticates using the OAuth protocol and TDV Studio does not support browser-based authentication internally, you will need to create and run a simple Java application to retrieve the OAuth tokens. Once retrieved, the tokens are used to connect to Dropbox directly from the adapter.

The following code sample shows how to authenticate with Dropbox. You will simply need to execute the Java application with the tdv.dropbox.jar file in the class path.

DropboxOAuth oauth = new DropboxOAuth();  
oauth.generateOAuthSettingsFile("InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;" + 
                                  "" + 
                                  "OAuthSettingsLocation=C:\dropbox\OAuthSettings.txt;");

Once you deploy the adapter and authenticate, you can create a new data source for Dropbox in TDV Studio.

Create a Dropbox Data Source in TDV Studio

With the CData TIBCO DV Adapter for Dropbox, you can easily create a data source for Dropbox 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. Dropbox) and click Next.
3. Name the data source (e.g. CData Dropbox Source).

4. Fill in the required connection properties.

   Dropbox uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, you can use the embedded credentials or register an app with Dropbox.

   See the Getting Started guide in the CData driver documentation for more information.

   NOTE: Set the OAuthSettingsLocation property in the DV Adapter to the same value you used when performing the OAuth authentication (see above).

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 Dropbox tables, views, and stored procedures as resources.

After creating and introspecting the data source, you are ready to work with Dropbox 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.