Connect to Smartsheet Data in RapidMiner

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

Connect to Smartsheet in RapidMiner as a JDBC Data Source

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

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

   Smartsheet uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, you will need to register an app to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties.

   However, for testing purposes you can instead use the Personal Access Token you get when you create an application; set this to the OAuthAccessToken connection property.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.smartsheet.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:33333;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
10. Enter your username and password if necessary.

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