Feed Twitter Data into FineReport



How to set Twitter data as a JDBC data source in FineReport.

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

Set Up a JDBC Data Source of Twitter Data

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

  1. Copy the cdata.jdbc.twitter.jar file from the lib folder in the CData JDBC Driver for Twitter installation directory to the lib folder of the FineReport installation directory. You will need to copy the cdata.jdbc.twitter.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.twitter.TwitterDriver
  3. URL: A standard JDBC connection string using semicolon-separated 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.

    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:twitter:InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
  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 Twitter set up, you can use it as FineReport data source.

Select Twitter 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 Twitter entities will appear as tables on the left pane.
  4. Write a SELECT statement for the Twitter data tables and columns that you want to load.
  5. Click preview and data is shown as table.

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

Ready to get started?

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Twitter Icon Twitter JDBC Driver

A straightforward interface to connect any Java application with Twitter integration capabilities including Search, GeoSearch, UserInfo, DirectMessages, Followers, and more!