Connect to Email Data in Ruby



Connect to Email data in Ruby with ruby-dbi, dbd-odbc, and ruby-odbc.

The CData ODBC Driver for Email makes it easy to integrate connectivity to live Email data in Ruby. This article shows how to create a simple Ruby app that connects to Email data, executes a query, and displays the results.

Create an ODBC Connection to Email Data

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.

The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid credentials. The Server must be specified to retrieve emails and the SMTPServer must be specified to send emails.

Installing Ruby and Necessary Gems

If you do not have Ruby installed, refer to the Ruby installation page. With Ruby installed, you will need to install the ruby-dbi, dbd-odbc, and ruby-odbc gems:

gem install dbi gem install dbd-odbc gem install ruby-odbc

Create a Ruby App with Connectivity to Email Data

Create a new Ruby file (for example: EmailSelect.rb) and open it in a text editor. Copy the following code into your file:

#connect to the DSN require 'dbi' cnxn = DBI.connect('DBI:ODBC:CData Email Source','','') #execute a SELECT query and store the result set resultSet = cnxn.execute("SELECT Mailbox, RecentMessagesCount FROM Mailboxes") #display the names of the columns resultSet.column_names.each do |name| print name, "\t" end puts #display the results while row = resultSet.fetch do (0..resultSet.column_names.size - 1).each do |n| print row[n], "\t" end puts end resultSet.finish #close the connection cnxn.disconnect if cnxn

With the file completed, you are ready to display your Email data with Ruby. To do so, simply run your file from the command line:

ruby EmailSelect.rb Writing SQL-92 queries to Email allows you to quickly and easily incorporate Email data into your own Ruby applications. Download a free trial today!

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Learn more:

Email Icon Email ODBC Driver

The Email ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live Internet E-mail, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Email data like you would a database - read, write, and send E-mails through a standard ODBC Driver interface.