Connect to Sugar CRM Data in RapidMiner

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

Connect to Sugar CRM in RapidMiner as a JDBC Data Source

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

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

   The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid SugarCRM user credentials. This will use the default OAuth token created to allow client logins. OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret are required if you do not wish to use the default OAuth token.

   You can generate a new OAuth consumer key and consumer secret in Admin -> OAuth Keys. Set the OAuthClientId to the OAuth consumer key. Set the OAuthClientSecret to the consumer secret.

   Additionally, specify the URL to the SugarCRM account.

   Note that retrieving SugarCRM metadata can be expensive. It is advised that you store the metadata locally as described in the "Caching Metadata" chapter of the help documentation.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.sugarcrm.jar

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

   A typical connection string is below:

   User=MyUser;Password=MyPassword;URL=MySugarCRMAccountURL;CacheMetadata=True;
10. Enter your username and password if necessary.

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