Access Browse AI Data in Mule Applications Using the CData JDBC Driver

The CData API Driver for JDBC connects Browse AI data to Mule applications enabling read functionality with familiar SQL queries. The JDBC Driver allows users to easily create Mule applications to backup, transform, report, and analyze Browse AI data.

This article demonstrates how to use the CData API Driver for JDBC inside of a Mule project to create a Web interface for Browse AI data. The application created allows you to request Browse AI data using an HTTP request and have the results returned as JSON. The exact same procedure outlined below can be used with any CData JDBC Driver to create a Web interface for the hundreds of available data sources.

1. Create a new Mule Project in Anypoint Studio.
2. Add an HTTP Connector to the Message Flow.
3. Configure the address for the HTTP Connector.
4. Add a Database Select Connector to the same flow, after the HTTP Connector.
5. Create a new Connection (or edit an existing one) and configure the properties.
   • Set Connection to "Generic Connection"
   • Select the CData JDBC Driver JAR file in the Required Libraries section (e.g. cdata.jdbc.api.jar).
   • Set the URL to the connection string for Browse AI

     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.

   • Set the Driver class name to cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver.
   • Click Test Connection.
6. Set the SQL Query Text to a SQL query to request Browse AI data. For example:

   SELECT Id, Status FROM RobotTasks WHERE RobotId = 'your-robot-id'

   
7. Add a Transform Message Component to the flow.
8. Set the Output script to the following to convert the payload to JSON:

   %dw 2.0
   output application/json
   ---
   payload
           

   
9. To view your Browse AI data, navigate to the address you configured for the HTTP Connector (localhost:8081 by default): http://localhost:8081. The Browse AI data is available as JSON in your Web browser and any other tools capable of consuming JSON endpoints.

At this point, you have a simple Web interface for working with Browse AI data (as JSON data) in custom apps and a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools. Download a free, 30 day trial of the JDBC Driver for Browse AI and see the CData difference in your Mule Applications today.