Manage Stack Exchange Data in DBArtisan as a JDBC Source

The CData JDBC Driver for Stack Exchange seamlessly integrates Stack Exchange data into database management tools like DBArtisan by enabling you to access Stack Exchange data as a database. This article shows how to create a JDBC source for Stack Exchange in DBArtisan. You can then edit data visually and execute standard SQL.

Integrate Stack Exchange Data into DBArtisan Projects

Follow the steps below to register Stack Exchange data as a database instance in your project:

1. In DBArtisan, click Data Source -> Register Datasource.
2. Select Generic JDBC.
3. Click Manage.
4. In the resulting dialog, click New. Enter a name for the driver and click Add. In the resulting dialog, navigate to the driver JAR. The driver JAR is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
5. In the Connection URL box, enter credentials and other required connection properties in the JDBC URL.

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

   Stack Exchange API Profile Settings

   Register an application on StackApps to obtain an API Key. The Site property specifies which Stack Exchange site to query (e.g., stackoverflow).

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   

   Below is a typical connection string:

   jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\StackExchange.apip;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key;Site=stackoverflow';

6. Finish the wizard to connect to Stack Exchange data. Stack Exchange entities are displayed in the Datasource Explorer.

You can now work with Stack Exchange data as you work with any other database. See the driver help documentation for more information on the queries supported by the Stack Exchange API.