Analyze Paddle Data in R via JDBC
Access Paddle data with pure R script and standard SQL on any machine where R and Java can be installed. You can use the CData JDBC Driver for Paddle and the RJDBC package to work with remote Paddle data in R. By using the CData Driver, you are leveraging a driver written for industry-proven standards to access your data in the popular, open-source R language. This article shows how to use the driver to execute SQL queries to Paddle and visualize Paddle data by calling standard R functions.
Install R
You can match the driver's performance gains from multi-threading and managed code by running the multithreaded Microsoft R Open or by running open R linked with the BLAS/LAPACK libraries. This article uses Microsoft R Open 3.2.3, which is preconfigured to install packages from the Jan. 1, 2016 snapshot of the CRAN repository. This snapshot ensures reproducibility.
Load the RJDBC Package
To use the driver, download the RJDBC package. After installing the RJDBC package, the following line loads the package:
library(RJDBC)
Connect to Paddle as a JDBC Data Source
You will need the following information to connect to Paddle as a JDBC data source:
- Driver Class: Set this to cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver
- Classpath: Set this to the location of the driver JAR. By default this is the lib subfolder of the installation folder.
The DBI functions, such as dbConnect and dbSendQuery, provide a unified interface for writing data access code in R. Use the following line to initialize a DBI driver that can make JDBC requests to the CData JDBC Driver for Paddle:
driver <- JDBC(driverClass = "cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver", classPath = "MyInstallationDir\lib\cdata.jdbc.api.jar", identifier.quote = "'")
You can now use DBI functions to connect to Paddle and execute SQL queries. Initialize the JDBC connection with the dbConnect function.
Using API Key Authentication
Paddle uses API key authentication. To obtain an API key:
- Sign in to your Paddle account at https://vendors.paddle.com
- Navigate to Developer Tools > Authentication
- Click "Generate API Key"
- Assign the appropriate permissions for the data you wish to access
- Copy the generated key (sandbox keys begin with pdl_sdbx_apikey_; production keys begin with pdl_live_apikey_)
After obtaining your API key, set the following connection properties:
- AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
- APIKey: Set this to your Paddle API key.
Example Connection String
Profile=C:\profiles\Paddle.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings="APIKey=your_api_key";
Connecting to Paddle
Once the authentication is configured, you can connect to Paddle and query data from any of the available tables such as Products, Customers, Subscriptions, and Transactions.
Built-in Connection String Designer
For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Paddle 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 sample dbConnect call, including a typical JDBC connection string:
conn <- dbConnect(driver,"jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\Paddle.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings="APIKey=your_api_key";")
Schema Discovery
The driver models Paddle APIs as relational tables, views, and stored procedures. Use the following line to retrieve the list of tables:
dbListTables(conn)
Execute SQL Queries
You can use the dbGetQuery function to execute any SQL query supported by the Paddle API:
products <- dbGetQuery(conn,"SELECT , FROM Products WHERE = ''")
You can view the results in a data viewer window with the following command:
View(products)
Plot Paddle Data
You can now analyze Paddle data with any of the data visualization packages available in the CRAN repository. You can create simple bar plots with the built-in bar plot function:
par(las=2,ps=10,mar=c(5,15,4,2)) barplot(products$, main="Paddle Products", names.arg = products$, horiz=TRUE)
