How to connect to Telegram Data with Squirrel SQL client

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Connect to Telegram data and execute queries in the Squirrel SQL Client.

The CData JDBC Driver for Telegram enables you to execute queries to Telegram data in tools like Squirrel SQL Client. In this article, you will create a JDBC data source for Telegram data and execute queries.

Add the JDBC Driver for Telegram

Follow the steps below to add the driver JAR.

  1. In Squirrel SQL, click Windows -> View Drivers.
  2. Click the plus icon to open the Add Driver wizard.
  3. In the Name box, enter a user-friendly name for the driver; for example, CData JDBC Driver for Telegram.
  4. In the Example URL box, enter jdbc:api:
  5. In the Extra Class Path tab, click Add.
  6. In the file explorer dialog that opens, select the JAR file for the driver, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
  7. Click List Drivers to populate the Class Name menu with the class name for the driver, cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver.

Define Connection Properties

Follow the steps below to save connection properties in the driver alias.

  1. Click Windows -> View Aliases.
  2. In the pane that lists the aliases, click the plus icon.
  3. In the Add Alias wizard that opens, the following fields are required for the JDBC driver:

    • Name: Enter a name for the alias; for example, CData Telegram Source.
    • Driver: Select the CData JDBC Driver for Telegram.
    • URL: Enter jdbc:api:
  4. If you want to define any additional properties, click Properties.
  5. In the Driver properties tab of the dialog that appears, select the Use driver properties checkbox.
  6. In the Specify column, select the checkboxes for the required connection properties.

    Using API Key Authentication

    Telegram uses Bot Tokens to authenticate API requests. You can obtain a Bot Token by creating a bot via BotFather on Telegram (https://t.me/BotFather). Once created, BotFather will provide a token in the format

    123456789:ABCdefGhIJKlmNoPQRsTUVwxyZ
    .

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

    • AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
    • APIKey: Set this to your Telegram Bot Token obtained from BotFather.

    Example connection string

    Profile=C:\profiles\Telegram.apip;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_bot_token';
    

    Below is a typical connection string:

    jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\Telegram.apip;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_bot_token';
    
  7. In the dialog that appears after you click OK, click connect to test the connection.

Discover Schemas and Query Telegram Data

After the metadata has loaded, a new tab for the Telegram data source is displayed. On the Objects subtab, you can discover schema information, such as the available tables and views.

To view table data, select the table on the Objects tab. The table data is then loaded in a grid on the Content tab.

To execute an SQL query, enter the query on the SQL tab and then click Run SQL (the runner icon). For example:

SELECT ,  FROM AvailableGifts WHERE  = ''

Ready to get started?

Connect to live data from Telegram with the API Driver

Connect to Telegram