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Get the Report →Using the CData ODBC Driver for PayPal in PyCharm
Connect to PayPal as an ODBC data source in PyCharm using the CData ODBC Driver for PayPal.
The CData ODBC Drivers can be used in any environment that supports loading an ODBC Driver. In this tutorial we will explore using the CData ODBC Driver for PayPal from within PyCharm. Included are steps for adding the CData ODBC Driver as a data source, as well as basic PyCharm code to query the data source and display results.
To begin, this tutorial will assume that you have already installed the CData ODBC Driver for PayPal as well as PyCharm.
Add Pyodbc to the Project
Follow the steps below to add the pyodbc module to your project.
- Click File -> Settings to open the project settings window.
- Click Project Interpreter from the Project: YourProjectName menu.
- To add pyodbc, click the + button and enter pyodbc.
- Click Install Package to install pyodbc.

Connect to PayPal
You can now connect with an ODBC connection string or a DSN. See the Getting Started section in the CData driver documentation for a guide to creating a DSN on your OS.
The provider surfaces tables from two PayPal APIs. The APIs use different authentication methods.
- The REST API uses the OAuth standard. To authenticate to the REST API, set the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL properties.
- The Classic API requires Signature API credentials. To authenticate to the Classic API, obtain an API username, password, and signature.
See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to obtaining the necessary API credentials.
To select the API you want to work with, you can set the Schema property to REST or SOAP. By default the SOAP schema will be used.
For testing purposes you can set UseSandbox to true and use sandbox credentials.
Below is the syntax for a DSN:
[CData PayPal Source]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for PayPal
Description = My Description
Schema = SOAP
Username = sandbox-facilitator_api1.test.com
Password = xyz123
Signature = zx2127
Execute SQL to PayPal
Instantiate a Cursor and use the execute method of the Cursor class to execute any SQL statement.
import pyodbc
cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DRIVER={CData ODBC Driver for PayPal};Schema = SOAP;Username = sandbox-facilitator_api1.test.com;Password = xyz123;Signature = zx2127;')
cursor = cnxn.cursor()
cursor.execute("SELECT Date, GrossAmount FROM Transactions WHERE TransactionClass = 'Received'")
rows = cursor.fetchall()
for row in rows:
print(row.Date, row.GrossAmount)
After connecting to PayPal in PyCharm using the CData ODBC Driver, you will be able to build Python apps with access to PayPal data as if it were a standard database. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback regarding this tutorial, please contact us at [email protected].