Manage Facebook Data in DBArtisan as a JDBC Source

The CData JDBC Driver for Facebook seamlessly integrates Facebook data into database management tools like DBArtisan by enabling you to access Facebook data as a database. This article shows how to create a JDBC source for Facebook in DBArtisan. You can then edit data visually and execute standard SQL.

Integrate Facebook Data into DBArtisan Projects

Follow the steps below to register Facebook data as a database instance in your project:

1. In DBArtisan, click Data Source -> Register Datasource.
2. Select Generic JDBC.
3. Click Manage.
4. In the resulting dialog, click New. Enter a name for the driver and click Add. In the resulting dialog, navigate to the driver JAR. The driver JAR is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
5. In the Connection URL box, enter credentials and other required connection properties in the JDBC URL.

   Most tables require user authentication as well as application authentication. Facebook uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate to Facebook, you can use the embedded OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL or you can obtain your own by registering an app with Facebook.

   See the Getting Started chapter of the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.facebook.jar

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

   Below is a typical connection string:

   jdbc:facebook:InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
6. Finish the wizard to connect to Facebook data. Facebook entities are displayed in the Datasource Explorer.

You can now work with Facebook data as you work with any other database. See the driver help documentation for more information on the queries supported by the Facebook API.