Access Foursquare Data in Mule Applications Using the CData JDBC Driver

The CData API Driver for JDBC connects Foursquare data to Mule applications enabling read functionality with familiar SQL queries. The JDBC Driver allows users to easily create Mule applications to backup, transform, report, and analyze Foursquare data.

This article demonstrates how to use the CData API Driver for JDBC inside of a Mule project to create a Web interface for Foursquare data. The application created allows you to request Foursquare data using an HTTP request and have the results returned as JSON. The exact same procedure outlined below can be used with any CData JDBC Driver to create a Web interface for the hundreds of available data sources.

1. Create a new Mule Project in Anypoint Studio.
2. Add an HTTP Connector to the Message Flow.
3. Configure the address for the HTTP Connector.
4. Add a Database Select Connector to the same flow, after the HTTP Connector.
5. Create a new Connection (or edit an existing one) and configure the properties.
   • Set Connection to "Generic Connection"
   • Select the CData JDBC Driver JAR file in the Required Libraries section (e.g. cdata.jdbc.api.jar).
   • Set the URL to the connection string for Foursquare

     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';
     

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   • Set the Driver class name to cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver.
   • Click Test Connection.
6. Set the SQL Query Text to a SQL query to request Foursquare data. For example:

   SELECT ,  FROM Autocomplete WHERE Query = 'abc'

   
7. Add a Transform Message Component to the flow.
8. Set the Output script to the following to convert the payload to JSON:

   %dw 2.0
   output application/json
   ---
   payload
           

   
9. To view your Foursquare data, navigate to the address you configured for the HTTP Connector (localhost:8081 by default): http://localhost:8081. The Foursquare data is available as JSON in your Web browser and any other tools capable of consuming JSON endpoints.

At this point, you have a simple Web interface for working with Foursquare data (as JSON data) in custom apps and a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools. Download a free, 30 day trial of the JDBC Driver for Foursquare and see the CData difference in your Mule Applications today.