Viewing LinkedIn Data in RAD Studio Data Explorer

Embarcadero RAD Studio provides a development environment for Delphi and C++Builder applications. With the CData FireDAC Components for LinkedIn, you gain access to live LinkedIn data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to both retrieve and update LinkedIn data. This article will walk through connecting to LinkedIn using the Data Explorer.

Connecting to LinkedIn Data Using Data Explorer

You can create a simple application for displaying LinkedIn data by utilizing the CData FireDAC Components for LinkedIn and a new VCL Forms Application:

1. Open the Data Explorer in RAD Studio and expand FireDAC.

2. Right-click on CData LinkedIn Data Source and click Add New Connection.

3. Name the connection.

4. Fill in the necessary connection parameters and click OK.
   LinkedIn uses the OAuth 2 authentication standard. You will need to obtain the OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret by registering an app with LinkedIn. For more information refer to our authentication guide.

5. Back in the Data Explorer, expand the tables for the connection.

6. Create a new VCL Forms application and drag a table (for example: CompanyStatusUpdates) onto the form.

7. Select the CompanyStatusUpdatesTable object on the form and set the Active property to true.

8. Right-click on the object, bind visually, and link everything (*) to a new control (TStringGrid).

9. Arrange the TStringGrid on the form and run the application to see the CompanyStatusUpdates data.