Connect to Instantly Data in DBeaver

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Use the CData ODBC Driver to connect to Instantly data in DBeaver.

NOTE: The Legacy ODBC driver was removed in DBeaver Community Edition 23.1. As an alternative, you can use a CData JDBC Driver (learn how here: How to Connect DBeaver to Instantly via JDBC). If you need to use ODBC Drivers, refer to the DBeaver Documentation.


The CData API Driver for ODBC enables access to live data from Instantly under the ODBC standard, allowing you work with Instantly data in a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools and directly, using familiar SQL queries. This article shows how to manage Instantly data with visual tools in DBeaver like the query browser.

The CData ODBC drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live Instantly data in DBeaver due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from DBeaver to Instantly, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Instantly and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. With built-in dynamic metadata querying, you can manage and analyze Instantly data.

Connect to Instantly

If you have not already done so, provide values for the required connection properties in the data source name (DSN). You can configure the DSN using the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator. 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.

Using API Key Authentication

Instantly uses API keys to authenticate requests. You can find or create your API key in the Instantly workspace settings under API & Webhooks.

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

  • AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
  • APIKey: Set this to your Instantly API key (Bearer token for API v2).

Example connection string

Profile=C:\profiles\Instantly.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings="APIKey=your_api_key";

Finally, set the "Map To WVarchar connection property to False in the DSN Configuration window for the driver. This configuration will allow string types to be mapped to SQL_VARCHAR and prevent SQL_WVARCHAR types from being displayed as NULL.

Connecting to the Instantly ODBC Data Source in DBeaver

  1. Open the DBeaver application and in the Database menu, select the New Database Connection option.
  2. In the 'Connect to a database' window, select ODBC and click Next.
  3. In the Database/Schema field, enter the DSN name (CData Instantly Source by default). It will be automatically added to the JDBC URL as well.
  4. Click the Test Connection button. You should receive a 'Connected' message after DBeaver has detected the DSN, along with details about the driver if the connection is successful.

Query Instantly Data

You can now query information from the tables exposed by the data source connection. You can expand the database structure in order to view all the tables. You can retrieve the table's data by right-clicking on a table name and selecting View data. The data will then be available in the Data tab.

Free Trial & More Information

At this point, you have connected to live Instantly data from DBeaver. For more information, visit the CData ODBC Driver page. Download a free, 30-day trial and start working live Instantly data DBeaver today.

Ready to get started?

Connect to live data from Instantly with the API Driver

Connect to Instantly