Integrate with Live Facebook Data in MuleSoft (via CData Connect Cloud)

The MuleSoft Anypoint Platform enables the building, deployment, and management of APIs and integrations, facilitating seamless connectivity across applications and systems. When combined with CData Connect Cloud, it provides access to Facebook data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article explains how to use CData Connect Cloud to create a live connection to Facebook and how to connect and access live Facebook data from the MuleSoft Anypoint Platform.

Prerequisites

Before configuring and using MuleSoft with CData Connect Cloud, you must first connect a data source to your CData Connect Cloud account. For more information, see the Connections section.

Additionally, you need to generate a Personal Access Token (PAT) on the Settings page. Be sure to copy it down, as it serves as your password during authentication.

Configure Facebook Connectivity for MuleSoft

Connectivity to Facebook from MuleSoft is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Facebook data from MuleSoft, we start by creating and configuring a Facebook connection.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "Facebook" from the Add Connection panel
3. Facebook uses OAuth to authenticate. Click "Sign in" to authenticate with Facebook.
4. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Facebook Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Facebook data from MuleSoft.

Connecting to CData Connect Cloud

Follow these steps to establish a connection from Mulesoft to CData Connect Cloud through the JDBC driver:

1. Download and install the CData Connect Cloud JDBC driver.
   1. Open the Client Tools page of CData Connect Cloud.
   2. Locate MuleSoft and click on Download for Mac/Windows/Linux.
   3. Download and run the setup file.
   4. When the installation is complete, the JAR file can be found in the installation directory (inside the lib folder).
2. Log into Mulesoft Anypoint Studio or launch the desktop application.
3. Create a new Mulesoft project. The new project appears in a project folder.
4. In the Mule Palette located on the right, drag an HTTP Listener to the Message Flow area.
5. Click on the HTTP Listener to configure it.
6. Click the + sign on the right of Connector configuration. The HTTP Listener config dialog appears.
7. Configure the HTTP Listener, providing a Port on which to query your data, and click OK.
8. Provide a path on which to perform the actions. The HTTP Listener is now configured.
9. In the Mule Palette on the right, type database in the search bar.
10. Drag the database operation you want to perform to the Message Flow area. For this example, we choose Select.
11. Select Generic Connection from the Connection dropdown in the Database Config dialog.
12. Click the Configure button to configure the JDBC driver. Select Use local file from the drop-down list.
13. Locate the CData Connect Cloud JAR file from the JDBC driver installation and click OK.
14. Provide the following information:
    • URL: the URL for the connection, for example: jdbc:connect:Authscheme=Basic;user=username;password=password Note: the password is the PAT created in the Prerequisites section.
    • Driver class name: Enter the Driver class name as: cdata.jdbc.connect.ConnectDriver
15. Click Test Connection.
16. If the connection is successful, provide the SQL Query Text in the editor. You can see the table metadata on the right side in the Output tab.
17. In the Mule Palette, drag Transform Message to the Message Flow area.
18. Click Transform Message to configure it. Change the Output as follows:
19. Save your project and run it. In the console, Mulesoft starts initializing the dependencies.
20. Once you see the message, "Message source 'listener' on flow your_project_name successfully started", you can start querying your data at the endpoint you provided.
21. Query to check out the data using the Postman application (as shown below).

SQL Access to Facebook Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live Facebook data from MuleSoft Anypoint Platform. You can create more connections to ensure seamless data flow, automate business processes, and manage APIs - all without replicating Facebook data.

To get real-time data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources (including Facebook) directly from your cloud applications, explore the CData Connect Cloud.