Viewing Short.io Data in RAD Studio Data Explorer

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

Configure a Connection to Short.io

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Using API Key Authentication

Short.io uses API Key authentication. To obtain your API key:

1. Log in to your Short.io account
2. Navigate to Settings > Integrations & API > API
3. Click Create API Key and copy your API key

After obtaining the API key, you are ready to connect:

• AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
• APIKey: Set this to your Short.io API key obtained from Settings > Integrations & API > API.

Example connection string:

Profile=C:\profiles\ShortIo.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key';

Available Tables

The Short.io profile provides access to the following tables:

• Domains - Short.io domains associated with the authenticated account
• Links - Short links for a domain
• LinkExpand - Expand a short link by domain and path
• LinksByOriginalUrl - Retrieve multiple short links matching a given original destination URL
• Folders - Link folders within a specific domain
• LinkPermissions - Permission records for a specific link within a domain
• CountryTargeting - Country-based redirect targeting rules for a specific short link
• RegionTargeting - Region-based redirect targeting rules for a specific short link
• Regions - List of available regions/states for a given country code
• DomainStatistics - Aggregated click and traffic statistics for a Short.io domain
• LinkStatistics - Aggregated click and traffic statistics for a specific Short.io link

Connecting to Short.io Data Using Data Explorer

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

1. Open the Data Explorer in RAD Studio and expand FireDAC.
2. Right-click the ODBC Data Source node in the Data Explorer.
3. Click Add New Connection.
4. Enter a name for the connection.
5. In the FireDAC Connection Editor that appears, set the DataSource property to the name of the ODBC DSN for Short.io.
6. Back in the Data Explorer, expand the views for the connection.

7. Create a new VCL Forms application and drag a view (for example: Domains) onto the form.

   
8. Select the DomainsView object on the form and set the Active property to true.

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

   

10. Arrange the TStringGrid on the form and run the application to see the Domains data.

    

Related Articles

Below you can find other articles for using the CData ODBC Driver with RAD Studio, Delphi, and C++ Builder.

• DataBind Controls to Short.io Data in C++Builder
• DataBind Controls to Short.io Data in Delphi
• Build a Simple VCL Application for Short.io Data