Connect to Google Sheets Data in DBVisualizer

The CData JDBC Driver for Google Sheets implements JDBC standards to provide connectivity to Google Sheets data in applications ranging from business intelligence tools to IDEs. This article shows how to establish a connection to Google Sheets data in DBVisualizer and use the table editor to edit and save Google Sheets data.

Create a New JDBC Data Source for Google Sheets Data

Follow the steps below to use the Driver Manager to provide connectivity to Google Sheets data from DBVisualizer tools.

1. In DBVisualizer, click Tools -> Driver Manager -> Create a New Driver.
2. Enter a name for the data source.
3. Enter the following in the URL Format box: jdbc:googlesheets:
   The DBVisualizer Driver Manager.
4. In the User Specified tab, click the Open File button and select the cdata.jdbc.googlesheets.jar file, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
5. In the Driver Class menu, select the GoogleSheetsDriver class, cdata.jdbc.googlesheets.GoogleSheetsDriver.

Define the Connection to the JDBC Data Source

Follow the steps below to save connection properties in the JDBC URL.

1. In the Database tab, right-click the Database Connection node and click Create a Database Connection.

2. In the Connection section, set the following options:

   • Database Type: If you selected the wizard option, the database type is automatically detected. If you selected the "No Wizard" option, select the Generic or Auto Detect option in the Database Type menu.
   • Driver: Select the driver you just created.

   • Database URL: Enter the full JDBC URL. The syntax of the JDBC URL is jdbc:googlesheets: followed by the connection properties in a semicolon-separated list of name-value pairs.

     You can connect to a spreadsheet by providing authentication to Google and then setting the Spreadsheet connection property to the name or feed link of the spreadsheet. If you want to view a list of information about the spreadsheets in your Google Drive, execute a query to the Spreadsheets view after you authenticate.

     ClientLogin (username/password authentication) has been officially deprecated since April 20, 2012 and is now no longer available. Instead, use the OAuth 2.0 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.

     See the Getting Started chapter in the help documentation to connect to Google Sheets from different types of accounts: Google accounts, Google Apps accounts, and accounts using two-step verification.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.googlesheets.jar

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

     When you configure the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

     A typical connection string is below:

     jdbc:googlesheets:Spreadsheet=MySheet;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
   • Database UserId: The username to use to authenticate to Google Sheets.
   • Database Password: The password to use to authenticate to Google Sheets.

3. On the Connection tab, click Connect.

To browse through tables exposed by the Google Sheets JDBC Driver, right-click a table and click Open in New Tab.

To execute SQL queries, use the SQL Commander tool: Click SQL Commander -> New SQL Commander. Select the Database Connection, Database, and Schema from the available menus.

See the "Supported SQL" chapter in the help documentation for more information on the supported SQL. See the "Data Model" chapter for table-specific information.