How to Query Hacker News Data in MySQL Workbench

You can use the SQL Gateway from the ODBC Driver for Hacker News to query Hacker News data through a MySQL interface. Follow the procedure below to start the MySQL remoting service of the SQL Gateway and work with live Hacker News data in MySQL Workbench.

Connect to Hacker News Data

If you have not already done so, provide values for the required connection properties in the data source name (DSN). You can use the built-in Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to configure the DSN. This is also the last step of the driver installation. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for a guide to using the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure a DSN.

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

Configure the SQL Gateway

See the SQL Gateway Overview to set up connectivity to Hacker News data as a virtual MySQL database. You will configure a MySQL remoting service that listens for MySQL requests from clients. The service can be configured in the SQL Gateway UI.

Query Hacker News from MySQL Workbench

The steps below outline connecting to the virtual Hacker News database created in the SQL Gateway from MySQL Workbench and issuing basic queries to work with live Hacker News data.

Connect to Hacker News through the SQL Gateway

1. In MySQL Workbench, click to add a new MySQL connection.
2. Name the connection (CData SQL Gateway for Hacker News).
3. Set the Hostname, Port, and Username parameters to connect to the SQL Gateway.
4. Click Store in Vault to set and store the password.
5. Click Test Connection to ensure the connection is configured properly and click OK.

NOTE: When we refer to Username and Password, we mean the credentials for the user(s) created for the SQL Gateway.

Query Hacker News Data

1. Open the connection you just created (CData SQL Gateway for Hacker News).
2. Click File -> New Query Tab.
3. Write a SQL query to retrieve Hacker News data, like SELECT * FROM `CData API Sys`.TopStories;

With access to live Hacker News data from MySQL Workbench, you can easily work with Hacker News, just like you would a MySQL database. Get started now with a free, 30-day trial of the CData API Driver for ODBC and the CData SQL Gateway.