Connect to Twitter Data in RapidMiner

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

Connect to Twitter in RapidMiner as a JDBC Data Source

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

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

   All tables require authentication. You can connect using your User and Password or OAuth. To authenticate using OAuth, you can use the embedded OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL or you can register an app to obtain your own.

   If you intend to communicate with Twitter only as the currently authenticated user, then you can obtain the OAuthAccessToken and OAuthAccessTokenSecret directly by registering an app.

   See the Getting Started chapter in 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 Twitter JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.twitter.jar

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

   A typical connection string is below:

   InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
10. Enter your username and password if necessary.

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