Connect to Spotify Data as an External Source in Dremio

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Use the CData JDBC Driver to connect to Spotify as an External Source in Dremio.

The CData API Driver for JDBC implements JDBC Standards and allows various applications, including Dremio, to work with live Spotify data. Dremio is a data lakehouse platform designed to empower self-service, interactive analytics on the data lake. With the CData JDBC driver, you can include live Spotify data as a part of your enterprise data lake. This article describes how to connect to Spotify data from Dremio as an External Source.

The CData JDBC Driver enables high-speed access to live Spotify data in Dremio. Once you install the driver, authenticate with Spotify and gain immediate access to Spotify data within your data lake. By surfacing Spotify data using native data types and handling complex filters, aggregations, & other operations automatically, the CData JDBC Driver grants seamless access to Spotify data.

Prerequisites

This article assumes you are utilizing Docker to run Dremio. You can create a Docker container with the Dremio service using a command similar to the follow:

docker run -d --name dremio -p 9047:9047 -p 31010:31010 dremio/dremio-oss

Where dremio is the name of the container, 9047 is the container's port for the Dremio web interface and 31010 is the port that maps to the Dremio query service. dremio/dremio-oss specifies the image to use.

Build the ARP Connector

To use the CData JDBC Driver in Dremio, you need to build an Advanced Relation Pushdown (ARP) Connector. You can view the source code for the Connector on GitHub or download the ZIP file (GitHub.com) directly. Once you copy or extract the files, run the following command from the root directory of the connector (the directory containing the pom.xml file) to build the connector.

mvn clean install

NOTE: The CData ARP Connectors are build to be compiled with Java 11. Be sure to install Java 11 and use the correct version. You can update your Java version using a command similar to the following:

sudo update-alternatives --config java

Once the JAR file for the connector is built (in the target directory), you are ready to copy the ARP connector and JDBC Driver to your Dremio instance.

Installing the Connector and JDBC Driver

Install the ARP Connector to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/ and the JDBC Driver for Spotify to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/3rdparty. You can use commands similar to the following:

ARP Connector

docker cp PATH\TO\dremio-api-plugin-{DREMIO_VERSION}.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/

JDBC Driver for Spotify

docker cp PATH\TO\cdata.jdbc.api.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/3rdparty/

Connecting to Spotify

Spotify will now appear as an External Source option in Dremio. The ARP Connector built uses a JDBC URL to connect to Spotify data. The JDBC Driver has a built-in connection string designer that you can use (see below).

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

Using OAuth Authentication

Spotify uses OAuth 2.0 for authentication. You will need to create an application in the Spotify Developer Dashboard to obtain your client credentials.

Setting Up Your Spotify Application

  1. Visit the Spotify Developer Dashboard.
  2. Log in with your Spotify account and click Create app.
  3. Provide an app name, description, and set a Redirect URI (e.g.,
    http://localhost:33333
    for desktop applications).
  4. Copy your Client ID and Client Secret from the app settings.

Connection Properties

After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

  • AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
  • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to manage the process to obtain the OAuthAccessToken.
  • OAuthClientId: Set this to your Spotify application's Client ID.
  • OAuthClientSecret: Set this to your Spotify application's Client Secret.
  • Scope: Set this to the required OAuth scopes (space-separated). The default includes all read scopes needed for the tables in this profile.
  • CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI configured in your Spotify application (e.g., http://localhost:33333).

Example Connection String

Profile=C:\profiles\Spotify.apip;AuthScheme=OAuth;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OAuthClientId=your_client_id;OAuthClientSecret=your_client_secret;CallbackURL=http://localhost:33333;

Available OAuth Scopes

  • user-read-private: Read access to user's subscription details and explicit content settings.
  • user-read-email: Read access to user's email address.
  • user-library-read: Read access to a user's saved tracks, albums, episodes, shows, and audiobooks.
  • playlist-read-private: Read access to user's private playlists.
  • playlist-read-collaborative: Read access to collaborative playlists the user follows.
  • user-follow-read: Read access to the list of artists the current user follows.
  • user-read-playback-state: Read access to a user's player state (device, current track, progress).
  • user-read-currently-playing: Read access to a user's currently playing content.
  • user-read-playback-history: Read access to a user's recently played tracks.
  • user-top-read: Read access to a user's top artists and tracks.

NOTE: To use the JDBC Driver in Dremio, you will need a license (full or trial) and a Runtime Key (RTK). For more information on obtaining this license (or a trial), contact our sales team.

Add the Runtime Key (RTK) to the JDBC URL. You will end up with a JDBC URL similar to the following:

jdbc:api:RTK=5246...;Profile=C:\profiles\Spotify.apip;AuthScheme=OAuth;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OAuthClientId=your_client_id;OAuthClientSecret=your_client_secret;CallbackURL=http://localhost:33333;

Access Spotify as an External Source

To add Spotify as an External Source, click to add a new source and select API. Copy the JDBC URL and paste it into the New API Source wizard.

Save the connection and you are ready to query live Spotify data in Dremio, easily incorporating Spotify data into your data lake.

More Information & Free Trial

Using the CData API Driver for JDBC in Dremio, you can incorporate live Spotify data into your data lake. Check out our CData API Driver for JDBC page for more information about connecting to Spotify. Download a free, 30 day trial of the CData API Driver for JDBC and get started today.

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