How to Connect DBeaver to Twitter via a JDBC Driver

The CData JDBC Driver for Twitter implements JDBC standards that enable third-party tools to interoperate, from wizards in IDEs to business intelligence tools. This article shows how to connect to Twitter data with wizards in DBeaver and browse data in the DBeaver GUI.

Create a JDBC Data Source for Twitter Data

Follow the steps below to load the driver JAR in DBeaver.

1. Open the DBeaver application and, in the "Database" menu, select the "Driver Manager" option. Click "New" to open the "Create new driver" form.
2. In the Settings tab:
   • Set Driver Name to a user-friendly name for the driver (e.g. CData JDBC Driver for Twitter).
   • Set Class Name to the class name for the JDBC driver: cdata.jdbc.twitter.TwitterDriver.
   • Set URL Template to jdbc:twitter:.
3. In the Libraries tab, click "Add File," navigate to the "lib" folder in the installation directory (C:\Program Files\CData[product_name] XXXX\) and select the JAR file (cdata.jdbc.Twitter.jar).

Create a Connection to Twitter Data

Follow the steps below to add credentials and other required connection properties.

1. In the "Database" menu, click "New Database Connection."
2. In the "Connect to a database" wizard that results, select the driver you just created (e.g. CData JDBC Driver for Twitter) and click "Next >."
3. On the Main tab of the configuration wizard, set the JDBC URL, using the required connection properties:

   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.

   Below is a typical connection string:

   jdbc:twitter:InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
4. Click "Test Connection ..." to ensure you have configured the connection properly.
5. Click "Finish."

Query Twitter Data

You can now query information from the tables exposed by the connection: Right-click a Table and then click View Table. The data is available on the Data tab.

More Information & Free Trial