Connect to Hacker News Data in JRuby

JRuby is a high-performance, stable, fully threaded Java implementation of the Ruby programming language. The CData JDBC Driver for Hacker News makes it easy to integrate connectivity to live Hacker News data in JRuby. This article shows how to create a simple JRuby app that connects to Hacker News data, executes a query, and displays the results.

Configure a JDBC Connection to Hacker News Data

Before creating the app, note the installation location for the JAR file for the JDBC Driver (typically C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for Hacker News\lib).

JRuby natively supports JDBC, so you can easily connect to Hacker News and execute SQL queries. Initialize the JDBC connection with the getConnection function of the java.sql.DriverManager class.

Connecting to HackerNews

The HackerNews API (powered by Firebase) is a public API that requires no authentication. You can connect and query data immediately without any credentials.

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

• AuthScheme: Set this to None.

Example connection string:

Profile=C:\profiles\HackerNews.apip;AuthScheme=None

Built-in Connection String Designer

For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Hacker News 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.

Below is a typical JDBC connection string for Hacker News:

jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\HackerNews.apip;AuthScheme=None

Create a JRuby App with Connectivity to Hacker News Data

Create a new Ruby file (for example: APISelect.rb) and open it in a text editor. Copy the following code into your file:

require 'java'
require 'rubygems'
require 'C:/Program Files/CData/CData JDBC Driver for Hacker News 2018/lib/cdata.jdbc.api.jar'

url = "jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\HackerNews.apip;AuthScheme=None"
conn = java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(url)
stmt = conn.createStatement
rs = stmt.executeQuery("SELECT ,  FROM TopStories")
while (rs.next) do
  puts rs.getString(1) + ' ' + rs.getString(2)
end

With the file completed, you are ready to display your Hacker News data with JRuby. To do so, simply run your file from the command line:

jruby -S APISelect.rb

Writing SQL-92 queries to Hacker News allows you to quickly and easily incorporate Hacker News data into your own JRuby applications. Download a free trial today!