Connect to QuickBooks Time Data in RapidMiner

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

Connect to QuickBooks Time in RapidMiner as a JDBC Data Source

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

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

   TSheets uses the OAuth2 standard for authentication and authorization. To construct your own OAuth app and connect to data, refer to OAuth section in the Help.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.tsheets.jar

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

   A typical connection string is below:

   OAuthClientId=myclientid;OAuthClientSecret=myclientsecret;CallbackUrl=http://localhost:33333;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
10. Enter your username and password if necessary.

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