Create an SAP BusinessObjects Universe on the CData JDBC Driver for Spotify

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Provide connectivity to Spotify data through an SAP BusinessObjects universe.

This article shows how to use the CData JDBC Driver for Spotify to connect to Spotify from SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence applications. You will use the Information Design Tool to analyze Spotify data and create a universe on the CData JDBC Driver for Spotify. You will then connect to the universe from Web Intelligence.

Create the JDBC Connection to Spotify

Follow the steps below to create a connection to the Spotify JDBC data source in the Information Design Tool.

  1. Copy the CData JAR and .lic file into the following subfolder in the installation directory for BusinessObjects: dataAccess\connectionServer\jdbc\drivers\jdbc. The CData JAR is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
  2. Right-click your project and click New -> New Relational Connection.
  3. In the wizard that results, click Generic -> Generic JDBC datasource -> JDBC Drivers.
  4. On the next page of the wizard enter the connection details.
  5. On the next page, set the Authentication Mode option to "Use specified username and password". Enter the username, password, and JDBC URL. The JDBC URL begins with jdbc:api: and is followed by a semicolon-separated list of connection properties.

    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.

    Built-in Connection String Designer

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

    When you configure the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

    A typical JDBC URL is below:

    jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\Spotify.apip;AuthScheme=OAuth;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OAuthClientId=your_client_id;OAuthClientSecret=your_client_secret;CallbackURL=http://localhost:33333;
    
  6. Enter the driver class: cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver
  7. Finish the wizard with the default values for connection pooling and custom parameters.

Analyze Spotify Data in the Information Design Tool

You can use the JDBC connection to analyze Spotify data in the Information Design Tool.

  1. In the Local Projects view, double-click the connection (the .cnx file) to open the Spotify data source.
  2. On the Show Values tab, you can load table data and enter SQL queries. To view table data, expand the node for the table, right-click the table, and click Show Values. Values will be displayed in the Raw Data tab.
  3. On the Analysis tab, you can then analyze data by dragging and dropping columns onto the axes of a chart.

Publish the Local Connection

To publish the universe to the CMS, you additionally need to publish the connection.

  1. In the Local Projects view, right-click the connection and click Publish Connection to a Repository.
  2. Enter the host and port of the repository and connection credentials.
  3. Select the folder where the connection will be published.
  4. In the success dialog that results, click Yes to create a connection shortcut.

Create a Universe on the JDBC Driver for Spotify

You can follow the steps below to create a universe on the JDBC driver. The universe in this example will be published to a repository, so it uses the published connection created in the previous step.

  1. In the Information Design Tool, click File->New Universe.
  2. Select your project.
  3. Select the option to create the universe on a relational data source.
  4. Select the shortcut to the published connection.
  5. Enter a name for the Data Foundation.
  6. Import tables and columns that you want to access as objects.
  7. Enter a name for the Business Layer.

Publish the Universe

You can follow the steps below to publish the universe to the CMS.

  1. In the Local Projects view, right-click the business layer and click Publish -> To a Repository.
  2. In the Publish Universe dialog, enter any integrity checks before importing.
  3. Select or create a folder on the repository where the universe will be published.

Query Spotify Data in Web Intelligence

You can use the published universe to connect to Spotify in Web Intelligence.

  1. Copy the cdata.jdbc.api.lic file to the following subfolder in the BusinessObjects installation directory: \dataAccess\connectionServer\jdbc\drivers\jdbc. The license file is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
  2. Open Web Intelligence from the BusinessObjects launchpad and create a new document.
  3. Select the Universe option for the data source.
  4. Select the Spotify universe. This opens a Query Panel. Drag objects to the Result Objects pane to use them in the query.

Ready to get started?

Connect to live data from Spotify with the API Driver

Connect to Spotify