Connect to GitHub Data in RapidMiner

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

Connect to GitHub in RapidMiner as a JDBC Data Source

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

1. Add a new database driver for GitHub: 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:github:
4. Enter the path to the cdata.jdbc.github.jar file, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
5. Enter the driver class: cdata.jdbc.github.GitHubDriver
6. Create a new GitHub connection: Click Connections -> Manage Database Connections.
7. Enter a name for your connection.
8. For Database System, select the GitHub driver you configured previously.
9. Enter your connection string in the Host box.

   GitHub uses the OAuth 2 authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, you will need to create an app to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties. See the Getting Started chapter of the CData help documentation for an authentication guide.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.github.jar

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

   A typical connection string is below:

   OAuthClientId=MyOAuthClientId;OAuthClientSecret=MyOAuthClientSecret;CallbackURL=http://localhost:portNumber;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
10. Enter your username and password if necessary.

You can now use your GitHub connection with the various RapidMiner operators in your process. To retrieve GitHub data, 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 GitHub data.