Feed Airtable Data into FineReport

The CData JDBC Driver for Airtable fully implements the JDBC standard and can provide Airtable data connectivity to a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools and custom applications. In this article, we explain how to set Airtable data as JDBC data source in FineReport and view Airtable data as a table in the Report Designer.

Set Up a JDBC Data Source of Airtable Data

Follow the instruction below to set Airtable data as a FineReport database connection.

1. Copy the cdata.jdbc.airtable.jar file from the lib folder in the CData JDBC Driver for Airtable installation directory to the lib folder of the FineReport installation directory. You will need to copy the cdata.jdbc.airtable.lic file as well.
2. From the Server tab, select Define Data Connection, click to add a new connection, and click JDBC.

Next we will set up the data connection definition in the window.

1. Database: Others
2. JDBC Driver: cdata.jdbc.airtable.AirtableDriver
3. URL: A standard JDBC connection string using semicolon-separated connection properties.

   APIKey, BaseId and TableNames parameters are required to connect to Airtable. ViewNames is an optional parameter where views of the tables may be specified.

   • APIKey : API Key of your account. To obtain this value, after logging in go to Account. In API section click Generate API key.
   • BaseId : Id of your base. To obtain this value, it is in the same section as the APIKey. Click on Airtable API, or navigate to https://airtable.com/api and select a base. In the introduction section you can find "The ID of this base is appxxN2ftedc0nEG7."
   • TableNames : A comma separated list of table names for the selected base. These are the same names of tables as found in the UI.
   • ViewNames : A comma separated list of views in the format of (table.view) names. These are the same names of the views as found in the UI.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.airtable.jar

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

   When you configure the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

   A typical JDBC URL is below:

   jdbc:airtable:APIKey=keymz3adb53RqsU;BaseId=appxxN2fe34r3rjdG7;TableNames=Table1,...;ViewNames=Table1.View1,...;
4. Click Connection pool attributes and set Test before getting connections to No.

Click Test connection to ensure you have configured the connection properly. With the connection to Airtable set up, you can use it as FineReport data source.

Select Airtable Data in the Report Designer.

1. Click to add a new template data set and select DB query to open the database query window.
2. Choose the JDBC connection that you created from the dropdown list.
3. The Airtable entities will appear as tables on the left pane.
4. Write a SELECT statement for the Airtable data tables and columns that you want to load.
5. Click preview and data is shown as table.

With these simple steps, Airtable can be used as a JDBC data source in FineReport.