We are proud to share our inclusion in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools. We believe this recognition reflects the differentiated business outcomes CData delivers to our customers.
Get the Report →Access eBay Data as a Remote Oracle Database
Use the Oracle ODBC Gateway and Heterogeneous Services technology to access eBay data from your Oracle system.
The Oracle Database Gateway for ODBC and Heterogeneous Services technology enable you to connect to ODBC data sources as remote Oracle databases. This article shows how to use the CData ODBC Driver for eBay to create a database link from eBay to Oracle and to query eBay data through the SQL*Plus tool. You can also create the database link and execute queries from SQL Developer.
Connect to eBay as an ODBC Data Source
Information for connecting to eBay follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments.
If you will be accessing your own account, you can generate an OAuthAccessToken from your developer account dashboard. You can also allow other users to securely access their own accounts.
Both of these methods require you to create an application key set to obtain values for the following connection properties: AppId, CertId, DevId, and SiteId.
The user consent flow additionally requires the RuName and CallbackURL.
See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.
Windows
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.
Note: If you need to modify the DSN or create other eBay DSNs, you must use a system DSN and the bitness of the DSN must match your Oracle system. You can access and create 32-bit DSNs on a 64-bit system by opening the 32-bit ODBC Data Source Administrator from C:\Windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe.
Linux
If you are installing the CData ODBC Driver for eBay in a Linux environment, the driver installation predefines a system DSN. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties.
/etc/odbc.ini
[CData Ebay Source]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for eBay
Description = My Description
AppId = MyAppId
CertId = MyCertId
DevId = MyDevId
SiteId = MySiteId
RuName = MyRuName
CallbackURL = http://localhost:33333
For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).
Set Connection Properties for Compatibility with Oracle
The driver provides several connection properties that streamline accessing eBay data just as you would an Oracle database. Set the following properties when working with eBay data in SQL*Plus and SQL Developer. For compatibility with Oracle, you will need to set the following connection properties, in addition to authentication and other required connection properties.
MapToWVarchar=False
Set this property to map string data types to SQL_VARCHAR instead of SQL_WVARCHAR. By default, the driver uses SQL_WVARCHAR to accommodate various international character sets. You can use this property to avoid the ORA-28528 Heterogeneous Services data type conversion error when the Unicode type is returned.
MaximumColumnSize=4000
Set this property to restrict the maximum column size to 4000 characters.
IncludeDualTable=True
Set this property to mock the Oracle DUAL table. SQL Developer uses this table to test the connection.
Linux Configuration
In Linux environments, Oracle uses UTF-8 to communicate with the unixODBC Driver manager, whereas the default driver encoding is UTF-16. To resolve this, open the file /opt/cdata/cdata-driver-for-ebay/lib/cdata.odbc.ebay.ini in a text editor and set the encoding.
cdata.odbc.ebay.ini
[Driver]
DriverManagerEncoding = UTF-8
Configure the ODBC Gateway, Oracle Net, and Oracle Database
Follow the procedure below to set up an ODBC gateway to eBay data that enables you to query live eBay data as an Oracle database.
-
Create the file initmyebaydb.ora in the folder oracle-home-directory/hs/admin and add the following setting:
initmyebaydb.ora
HS_FDS_CONNECT_INFO = "CData Ebay Sys"
-
Add an entry to the listener.ora file. This file is located in oracle-home-directory/NETWORK/admin.
If you are using the Database Gateway for ODBC, your listener.ora needs to have a SID_LIST_LISTENER entry that resembles the following:
listener.ora
SID_LIST_LISTENER = (SID_LIST = (SID_DESC = (SID_NAME = myebaydb) (ORACLE_HOME = your-oracle-home) (PROGRAM = dg4odbc) ) )
If you are using Heterogeneous Services, your listener.ora needs to have a SID_LIST_LISTENER entry that resembles the following:
listener.ora
SID_LIST_LISTENER = (SID_LIST = (SID_DESC = (SID_NAME = myebaydb) (ORACLE_HOME = your-oracle-home) (PROGRAM = hsodbc) ) )
-
Add the connect descriptor below in tnsnames.ora, located in oracle-home-directory/NETWORK/admin:
tnsnames.ora
myebaydb = (DESCRIPTION= (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=localhost)(PORT=1521)) (CONNECT_DATA=(SID=myebaydb)) (HS=OK) )
- Restart the listener.
Test the configuration with the following command:
tnsping myebaydb
-
Open SQL*Plus and create the database link with the command below:
CREATE DATABASE LINK myebaydb CONNECT TO "user" IDENTIFIED BY "password" USING 'myebaydb';
You can now execute queries in SQL*Plus like the one below (note the double quotation marks around the table name):
SELECT * from "ItemListing"@myebaydb WHERE ListingStatus = 'active';