Connect to Google Sheets Data in RapidMiner

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

Connect to Google Sheets in RapidMiner as a JDBC Data Source

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

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

   You can connect to a spreadsheet by providing authentication to Google and then setting the Spreadsheet connection property to the name or feed link of the spreadsheet. If you want to view a list of information about the spreadsheets in your Google Drive, execute a query to the Spreadsheets view after you authenticate.

   ClientLogin (username/password authentication) has been officially deprecated since April 20, 2012 and is now no longer available. Instead, use the OAuth 2.0 authentication standard. To access Google APIs on behalf on individual users, you can use the embedded credentials or you can register your own OAuth app.

   OAuth also enables you to use a service account to connect on behalf of users in a Google Apps domain. To authenticate with a service account, you will need to register an application to obtain the OAuth JWT values.

   See the Getting Started chapter in the help documentation to connect to Google Sheets from different types of accounts: Google accounts, Google Apps accounts, and accounts using two-step verification.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.googlesheets.jar

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

   A typical connection string is below:

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

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