Connect to Foursquare Data as an External Source in Dremio

The CData API Driver for JDBC implements JDBC Standards and allows various applications, including Dremio, to work with live Foursquare data. Dremio is a data lakehouse platform designed to empower self-service, interactive analytics on the data lake. With the CData JDBC driver, you can include live Foursquare data as a part of your enterprise data lake. This article describes how to connect to Foursquare data from Dremio as an External Source.

The CData JDBC Driver enables high-speed access to live Foursquare data in Dremio. Once you install the driver, authenticate with Foursquare and gain immediate access to Foursquare data within your data lake. By surfacing Foursquare data using native data types and handling complex filters, aggregations, & other operations automatically, the CData JDBC Driver grants seamless access to Foursquare data.

Prerequisites

This article assumes you are utilizing Docker to run Dremio. You can create a Docker container with the Dremio service using a command similar to the follow:

docker run -d --name dremio -p 9047:9047 -p 31010:31010 dremio/dremio-oss

Where dremio is the name of the container, 9047 is the container's port for the Dremio web interface and 31010 is the port that maps to the Dremio query service. dremio/dremio-oss specifies the image to use.

Build the ARP Connector

To use the CData JDBC Driver in Dremio, you need to build an Advanced Relation Pushdown (ARP) Connector. You can view the source code for the Connector on GitHub or download the ZIP file (GitHub.com) directly. Once you copy or extract the files, run the following command from the root directory of the connector (the directory containing the pom.xml file) to build the connector.

mvn clean install

NOTE: The CData ARP Connectors are build to be compiled with Java 11. Be sure to install Java 11 and use the correct version. You can update your Java version using a command similar to the following:

sudo update-alternatives --config java

Once the JAR file for the connector is built (in the target directory), you are ready to copy the ARP connector and JDBC Driver to your Dremio instance.

Installing the Connector and JDBC Driver

Install the ARP Connector to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/ and the JDBC Driver for Foursquare to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/3rdparty. You can use commands similar to the following:

ARP Connector

docker cp PATH\TO\dremio-api-plugin-{DREMIO_VERSION}.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/

JDBC Driver for Foursquare

docker cp PATH\TO\cdata.jdbc.api.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/3rdparty/

Connecting to Foursquare

Foursquare will now appear as an External Source option in Dremio. The ARP Connector built uses a JDBC URL to connect to Foursquare data. The JDBC Driver has a built-in connection string designer that you can use (see below).

Built-in Connection String Designer

For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Foursquare JDBC Driver. 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.

Using API Key Authentication

Foursquare Places API uses Service Key (Bearer token) authentication. To obtain a Service Key:

1. Go to the Foursquare Developer Console at https://foursquare.com/developers/
2. Create a new project or select an existing one
3. Navigate to the API Keys section
4. Generate a new Service Key for the Places API

After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

• AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
• ServiceKey: Set this to your Foursquare Service Key obtained from the Developer Console.
• XPlacesApiVersion: (Optional) Set this to the API version date. Defaults to 2025-06-17.

Example APIKey connection string

Profile=C:\profiles\Foursquare.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_personal_access_token';

NOTE: To use the JDBC Driver in Dremio, you will need a license (full or trial) and a Runtime Key (RTK). For more information on obtaining this license (or a trial), contact our sales team.

Add the Runtime Key (RTK) to the JDBC URL. You will end up with a JDBC URL similar to the following:

jdbc:api:RTK=5246...;Profile=C:\profiles\Foursquare.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_personal_access_token';

Access Foursquare as an External Source

To add Foursquare as an External Source, click to add a new source and select API. Copy the JDBC URL and paste it into the New API Source wizard.

Save the connection and you are ready to query live Foursquare data in Dremio, easily incorporating Foursquare data into your data lake.

More Information & Free Trial

Using the CData API Driver for JDBC in Dremio, you can incorporate live Foursquare data into your data lake. Check out our CData API Driver for JDBC page for more information about connecting to Foursquare. Download a free, 30 day trial of the CData API Driver for JDBC and get started today.