Connect to Short.io Data in Ruby

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Connect to Short.io data in Ruby with ruby-dbi, dbd-odbc, and ruby-odbc.

The CData API Driver for ODBC makes it easy to integrate connectivity to live Short.io data in Ruby. This article shows how to create a simple Ruby app that connects to Short.io data, executes a query, and displays the results.

Create an ODBC Connection to Short.io Data

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

Installing Ruby and Necessary Gems

If you do not have Ruby installed, refer to the Ruby installation page. With Ruby installed, you will need to install the ruby-dbi, dbd-odbc, and ruby-odbc gems:

gem install dbi
gem install dbd-odbc
gem install ruby-odbc

Create a Ruby App with Connectivity to Short.io Data

Create a new Ruby file (for example: APISelect.rb) and open it in a text editor. Copy the following code into your file:

#connect to the DSN
require 'dbi'
cnxn = DBI.connect('DBI:ODBC:CData API Source','','')

#execute a SELECT query and store the result set
resultSet = cnxn.execute("SELECT ,  FROM Domains WHERE  = ''")

#display the names of the columns
resultSet.column_names.each do |name|
  print name, "\t"
end
puts

#display the results
while row = resultSet.fetch do
  (0..resultSet.column_names.size - 1).each do |n|
    print row[n], "\t"
  end
  puts
end
resultSet.finish

#close the connection
cnxn.disconnect if cnxn

With the file completed, you are ready to display your Short.io data with Ruby. To do so, simply run your file from the command line:

ruby APISelect.rb
Writing SQL-92 queries to Short.io allows you to quickly and easily incorporate Short.io data into your own Ruby applications. Download a free trial today!

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