Viewing Browse AI Data in RAD Studio Data Explorer

Embarcadero RAD Studio provides a development environment for Delphi and C++Builder applications. With the CData ODBC Driver for Browse AI, you gain access to live Browse AI data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to both retrieve Browse AI data. This article will walk through connecting to Browse AI using the Data Explorer.

Configure a Connection to Browse AI

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

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).

Connecting to Browse AI Data Using Data Explorer

You can create a simple application for displaying Browse AI data by utilizing the CData FireDAC Components for Browse AI and a new VCL Forms Application:

1. Open the Data Explorer in RAD Studio and expand FireDAC.
2. Right-click the ODBC Data Source node in the Data Explorer.
3. Click Add New Connection.
4. Enter a name for the connection.
5. In the FireDAC Connection Editor that appears, set the DataSource property to the name of the ODBC DSN for Browse AI.
6. Back in the Data Explorer, expand the views for the connection.

7. Create a new VCL Forms application and drag a view (for example: RobotTasks) onto the form.

   
8. Select the RobotTasksView object on the form and set the Active property to true.

9. Right-click on the object, bind visually, and link everything (*) to a new control (TStringGrid).

   

10. Arrange the TStringGrid on the form and run the application to see the RobotTasks data.

    

Related Articles

Below you can find other articles for using the CData ODBC Driver with RAD Studio, Delphi, and C++ Builder.

• DataBind Controls to Browse AI Data in C++Builder
• DataBind Controls to Browse AI Data in Delphi
• Build a Simple VCL Application for Browse AI Data