Connect to Exact Online Data in RapidMiner

This article shows how you can easily integrate the CData JDBC driver for Exact Online into your processes in RapidMiner. This article uses the CData JDBC Driver for Exact Online to transfer Exact Online data to a process in RapidMiner.

Connect to Exact Online in RapidMiner as a JDBC Data Source

You can follow the procedure below to establish a JDBC connection to Exact Online:

1. Add a new database driver for Exact Online: Click Connections -> Manage Database Drivers.
2. In the resulting wizard, click the Add button and enter a name for the connection.
3. Enter the prefix for the JDBC URL: jdbc:exactonline:
4. Enter the path to the cdata.jdbc.exactonline.jar file, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
5. Enter the driver class: cdata.jdbc.exactonline.ExactOnlineDriver
6. Create a new Exact Online connection: Click Connections -> Manage Database Connections.
7. Enter a name for your connection.
8. For Database System, select the Exact Online driver you configured previously.
9. Enter your connection string in the Host box.

   Exact Online uses the OAuth authentication standard. The InitiateOAuth connection property facilitates the OAuth flow -- by default, this is set to GETANDREFRESH. You can also use the embedded OAuth credentials or you can register an OAuth app with Exact to obtain your own. In addition to the OAuth values, provide the Region. If Division is not set, the default Division is determined.

   See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for more information.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.exactonline.jar

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

   A typical connection string is below:

   Region='United States';Division=5512;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
10. Enter your username and password if necessary.

You can now use your Exact Online connection with the various RapidMiner operators in your process. To retrieve Exact Online data, drag the Retrieve operator from the Operators view. With the Retrieve operator selected, you can then define which table to retrieve in the Parameters view by clicking the folder icon next to the "repository entry." In the resulting Repository Browser, you can expand your connection node to select the desired example set.

Finally, wire the output to the Retrieve process to a result, and run the process to see the Exact Online data.