Connect to Facebook Data in RapidMiner

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

Connect to Facebook in RapidMiner as a JDBC Data Source

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

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

   Most tables require user authentication as well as application authentication. Facebook uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate to Facebook, you can use the embedded OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL or you can obtain your own by registering an app with Facebook.

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.facebook.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 Facebook connection with the various RapidMiner operators in your process. To retrieve Facebook 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 Facebook data.