How to connect to Browse AI Data from IntelliJ

The CData JDBC Driver for Browse AI enables you to access Browse AI as a JDBC data source, providing integration with rapid development tools in IDEs. This article shows how to use the data source configuration wizard to connect to Browse AI data in IntelliJ.

Create a JBDC Data Source for Browse AI

Follow the steps below to add the driver JAR and define connection properties required to connect to Browse AI data.

1. In the Data Sources window, right-click and then click Add Data Source -> DB Data Source.

2. In the Data Source Properties dialog that appears, the following properties are required:

   • JDBC Driver Files: Click the button next to this menu to add the JDBC Driver file cdata.jdbc.api.jar, located in the installation directory.
   • JDBC Driver Class: In this menu, select cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver from the list.

   • Database URL: Enter the connection URL in the JDBC URL property. The URL must start with jdbc:api: and includes connection properties separated with semicolons.

     Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the BrowseAI Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\BrowseAI.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for BrowseAI (see below).

     BrowseAI API Profile Settings

     BrowseAI is a web scraping and automation platform that allows you to train robots to extract and monitor data from websites. Authentication is performed using an API key that is sent as a Bearer token in the Authorization header.

     The BrowseAI API key has the format {userId}:{apiKey}, where both parts are UUIDs separated by a colon. This full string is provided as a single value in the BrowseAI dashboard.

     To obtain your API key:

     1. Log in to your BrowseAI account at https://app.browse.ai
     2. Navigate to Settings in the dashboard
     3. Locate the API section
     4. Copy the full API key string displayed (format: userId:apiKey)

     After obtaining your API key, set the following connection properties:

     • AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.

     Set the following in the ProfileSettings connection property:

     • APIKey: Set this to your BrowseAI API key (format: userId:apiKey).

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     
     java -jar cdata.jdbc.api.jar
     

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

     

     A typical JDBC URL is the following:

     jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\BrowseAI.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_user_id:your_api_key';

Edit and Save Browse AI Data

To discover schema information, right-click the data source you just created and click Refresh Tables. To query a table, right-click it and then click Open Tables Editor.