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Get the Report →Access Live Gmail Data in AWS Lambda
Connect to live Gmail data in AWS Lambda using the CData JDBC Driver.
AWS Lambda is a compute service that lets you build applications that respond quickly to new information and events. AWS Lambda functions can work with live Gmail data when paired with the CData JDBC Driver for Gmail. This article describes how to connect to and query Gmail data from an AWS Lambda function built in Eclipse.
At the time this article was written (June 2022), Eclipse version 2019-12 and Java 8 were the highest versions supported by the AWS Toolkit for Eclipse.
With built-in optimized data processing, the CData JDBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Gmail data. When you issue complex SQL queries to Gmail, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Gmail and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (often SQL functions and JOIN operations). In addition, its built-in dynamic metadata querying allows you to work with and analyze Gmail data using native data types.
Gather Connection Properties and Build a Connection String
There are two ways to authenticate to Gmail. Before selecting one, first ensure that you have enabled IMAP access in your Gmail account settings. See the "Connecting to Gmail" section under "Getting Started" in the installed documentation for a guide.
The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, can be set to valid Gmail user credentials.
Alternatively, instead of providing the Password, you can use the OAuth authentication standard. To access Google APIs on behalf on individual users, you can use the embedded credentials or you can register your own OAuth app.
OAuth also enables you to use a service account to connect on behalf of users in a Google Apps domain. To authenticate with a service account, you will need to register an application to obtain the OAuth JWT values.
In addition to the OAuth values, you will need to provide the User. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.
NOTE: To use the JDBC driver in an AWS Lambda function, 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.
Built-in Connection String Designer
For assistance constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Gmail JDBC Driver. Double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command line.
java -jar cdata.jdbc.gmail.jar
Fill in the connection properties (including the RTK) and copy the connection string to the clipboard.
Create an AWS Lambda Function
- Download the CData JDBC Driver for Gmail installer, unzip the package, and run the JAR file to install the driver.
Create a new AWS Lambda Java Project in Eclipse using the AWS Toolkit for Eclipse. You can follow the tutorial from AWS (amazon.com).
For this article, set the Input Type for the project to "Custom" so we can enter a table name as the input.
- Add the CData JDBC Driver for Gmail JAR file (cdata.jdbc.gmail.jar) to the build path. The file is found in INSTALL_PATH\lib\.
- Add the following import statements to the Java class:
import java.sql.Connection; import java.sql.DriverManager; import java.sql.ResultSet; import java.sql.ResultSetMetaData; import java.sql.SQLException; import java.sql.Statement;
Replace the body of the handleRequest method with the code below. Be sure to fill in the connection string in the DriverManager.getConnection method call.
String query = "SELECT * FROM " + input; try { Class.forName("cdata.jdbc.gmail.GmailDriver"); } catch (ClassNotFoundException ex) { context.getLogger().log("Error: class not found"); } Connection connection = null; try { connection = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:cdata:gmail:RTK=52465...;User=username;Password=password;"); } catch (SQLException ex) { context.getLogger().log("Error getting connection: " + ex.getMessage()); } catch (Exception ex) { context.getLogger().log("Error: " + ex.getMessage()); } if(connection != null) { context.getLogger().log("Connected Successfully!\n"); } ResultSet resultSet = null; try { //executing query Statement stmt = connection.createStatement(); resultSet = stmt.executeQuery(query); ResultSetMetaData metaData = resultSet.getMetaData(); int numCols = metaData.getColumnCount(); //printing the results while(resultSet.next()) { for(int i = 1; i <= numCols; i++) { System.out.printf("%-25s", (resultSet.getObject(i) != null) ? resultSet.getObject(i).toString().replaceAll("\n", "") : null ); } System.out.print("\n"); } } catch (SQLException ex) { System.out.println("SQL Exception: " + ex.getMessage()); } catch (Exception ex) { System.out.println("General exception: " + ex.getMessage()); } String output = "query: " + query + " complete"; return output;
Deploy and Run the Lambda Function
Once you build the function in Eclipse, you are ready to upload and run the function. In this article, the output is written to the AWS logs, but you can use this is a template to implement you own custom business logic to work with Gmail data in AWS Lambda functions.
- Right-click the Package and select Amazon Web Services -> Upload function to AWS Lamba.
- Name the function, select an IAM role, and set the timeout value to a high enough value to ensure the function completes (depending on the result size of your query).
- Right-click the Package and select Amazon Web Services -> Run function on AWS Lambda and set the input to the name of the Gmail object you wish to query (i.e. "Inbox").
- After the job runs, you can view the output in the CloudWatch logs.
Free Trial & More Information
Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Gmail and start working with your live Gmail data in AWS Lambda. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.