Connect to REST Data in RapidMiner

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

Connect to REST in RapidMiner as a JDBC Data Source

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

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

   See the Getting Started chapter in the data provider documentation to authenticate to your data source: The data provider models REST APIs as bidirectional database tables and XML/JSON files as read-only views (local files, files stored on popular cloud services, and FTP servers). The major authentication schemes are supported, including HTTP Basic, Digest, NTLM, OAuth, and FTP. See the Getting Started chapter in the data provider documentation for authentication guides.

   After setting the URI and providing any authentication values, set Format to "XML" or "JSON" and set DataModel to more closely match the data representation to the structure of your data.

   The DataModel property is the controlling property over how your data is represented into tables and toggles the following basic configurations.

   • Document (default): Model a top-level, document view of your REST data. The data provider returns nested elements as aggregates of data.
   • FlattenedDocuments: Implicitly join nested documents and their parents into a single table.
   • Relational: Return individual, related tables from hierarchical data. The tables contain a primary key and a foreign key that links to the parent document.

   See the Modeling REST Data chapter for more information on configuring the relational representation. You will also find the sample data used in the following examples. The data includes entries for people, the cars they own, and various maintenance services performed on those cars.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.rest.jar

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

   A typical connection string is below:

   DataModel=Relational;URI=C:/people.xml;Format=XML;
10. Enter your username and password if necessary.

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