Using the CData ODBC Driver for SparkPost in PyCharm

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 SparkPost 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 SparkPost as well as PyCharm.

Add Pyodbc to the Project

Follow the steps below to add the pyodbc module to your project.

1. Click File -> Settings to open the project settings window.
2. Click Project Interpreter from the Project: YourProjectName menu.
3. To add pyodbc, click the + button and enter pyodbc.
4. Click Install Package to install pyodbc.

Connect to SparkPost

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.

Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the SparkPost Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\SparkPost.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for SparkPost (see below).

SparkPost API Profile Settings

Generate an API key by navigating to Configuration > API Keys > Create API Key in your SparkPost account.

Below is the syntax for a DSN:

[CData API Source]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for SparkPost
Description = My Description
Profile = C:\profiles\SparkPost.apip
ProfileSettings = 'APIKey = your_api_key'

Execute SQL to SparkPost

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 API};Profile = C:\profiles\SparkPost.apip;ProfileSettings = 'APIKey = your_api_key';')
cursor = cnxn.cursor()
cursor.execute("SELECT Id, Name FROM ABTests WHERE Status = 'completed'")
rows = cursor.fetchall()
for row in rows:
  print(row.Id, row.Name)

After connecting to SparkPost in PyCharm using the CData ODBC Driver, you will be able to build Python apps with access to SparkPost 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].