Connect to ScrapingBee Data in Aqua Data Studio

The CData JDBC Driver for ScrapingBee integrates ScrapingBee data with wizards and analytics in IDEs like Aqua Data Studio. This article shows how to connect to ScrapingBee data through the connection manager and execute queries.

Create a JDBC Data Source

You can use the connection manager to define connection properties and save them in a new JDBC data source. The ScrapingBee data source can then be accessed from Aqua Data Studio tools.

1. In Aqua Data Studio, select Register Server from the Servers menu.
2. In the Register Server form, select the 'Generic - JDBC' connection.
3. Enter the following JDBC connection properties:
   • Name: Enter a name for the data source; for example, ScrapingBee.
   • Driver Location: Click the Browse button and select the cdata.jdbc.api.jar file, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
   • Driver: Enter the Driver's class name, cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver.

   • URL: Enter the JDBC URL, which starts with jdbc:api: and is followed by a semicolon-separated list of connection properties.

     Using API Key Authentication

     ScrapingBee uses API key authentication. To obtain an API key:

     1. Sign in to your ScrapingBee account at https://app.scrapingbee.com
     2. Navigate to the Dashboard and locate your API key in the top section.
     3. Copy the API key for use in the connection string.

     After obtaining your API key, set the following connection properties:

     • AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
     Set the following in the ProfileSettings connection property:
     • APIKey: Set this to your ScrapingBee API key.

     Example Connection String

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

     Connecting to ScrapingBee

     Once the authentication is configured, you can connect to ScrapingBee and query data from any of the available tables. All tables require at least one input parameter (such as a search query or product ID) to retrieve data.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the ScrapingBee 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.

     A typical JDBC URL is below:

     jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\ScrapingBee.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings="APIKey=your_api_key";

   

Query ScrapingBee Data

You can now query the tables exposed.