ETL Todoist in Oracle Data Integrator



This article shows how to transfer Todoist data into a data warehouse using Oracle Data Integrator.

Leverage existing skills by using the JDBC standard to connect to Todoist: Through drop-in integration into ETL tools like Oracle Data Integrator (ODI), the CData JDBC Driver for Todoist connects real-time Todoist data to your data warehouse, business intelligence, and Big Data technologies.

JDBC connectivity enables you to work with Todoist just as you would any other database in ODI. As with an RDBMS, you can use the driver to connect directly to the Todoist APIs in real time instead of working with flat files.

This article walks through a JDBC-based ETL -- Todoist to Oracle. After reverse engineering a data model of Todoist entities, you will create a mapping and select a data loading strategy -- since the driver supports SQL-92, this last step can easily be accomplished by selecting the built-in SQL to SQL Loading Knowledge Module.

Install the Driver

To install the driver, copy the driver JAR (cdata.jdbc.api.jar) and .lic file (cdata.jdbc.api.lic), located in the installation folder, into the ODI appropriate directory:

  • UNIX/Linux without Agent: ~/.odi/oracledi/userlib
  • UNIX/Linux with Agent: ~/.odi/oracledi/userlib and $ODI_HOME/odi/agent/lib
  • Windows without Agent: %APPDATA%\Roaming\odi\oracledi\userlib
  • Windows with Agent: %APPDATA%\odi\oracledi\userlib and %APPDATA%\odi\agent\lib

Restart ODI to complete the installation.

Reverse Engineer a Model

Reverse engineering the model retrieves metadata about the driver's relational view of Todoist data. After reverse engineering, you can query real-time Todoist data and create mappings based on Todoist tables.

  1. In ODI, connect to your repository and click New -> Model and Topology Objects.
  2. On the Model screen of the resulting dialog, enter the following information:
    • Name: Enter API.
    • Technology: Select Generic SQL (for ODI Version 12.2+, select Microsoft SQL Server).
    • Logical Schema: Enter API.
    • Context: Select Global.
  3. On the Data Server screen of the resulting dialog, enter the following information:
    • Name: Enter API.
    • Driver List: Select Oracle JDBC Driver.
    • Driver: Enter cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver
    • URL: Enter the JDBC URL containing the connection string.

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

      Todoist API Profile Settings

      To authenticate to Todoist, and connect to your own data or to allow other users to connect to their data, you can use the OAuth standard.

      First, you will need to register an OAuth application with Todoist. To do so, go to App Management Console, create a new application and configure a valid OAuth redirect URL. Your Oauth application will be assigned a client id and a client secret.

      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 the client_id that is specified in you app settings.
      • OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client_secret that is specified in you app settings.
      • CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI that is specified in your app settings

      Built-in Connection String Designer

      For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Todoist 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\Todoist.apip;Authscheme=OAuth;OAuthClientId=your_client_id;OAuthClientSecret=your_client_secret;CallbackUrl=your_callback_url;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
  4. On the Physical Schema screen, enter the following information:
    • Name: Select from the Drop Down menu.
    • Database (Catalog): Enter CData.
    • Owner (Schema): If you select a Schema for Todoist, enter the Schema selected, otherwise enter API.
    • Database (Work Catalog): Enter CData.
    • Owner (Work Schema): If you select a Schema for Todoist, enter the Schema selected, otherwise enter API.
  5. In the opened model click Reverse Engineer to retrieve the metadata for Todoist tables.

Edit and Save Todoist Data

After reverse engineering you can now work with Todoist data in ODI. To view Todoist data, expand the Models accordion in the Designer navigator, right-click a table, and click View data.

Create an ETL Project

Follow the steps below to create an ETL from Todoist. You will load Tasks entities into the sample data warehouse included in the ODI Getting Started VM.

  1. Open SQL Developer and connect to your Oracle database. Right-click the node for your database in the Connections pane and click new SQL Worksheet.

    Alternatively you can use SQLPlus. From a command prompt enter the following:

    sqlplus / as sysdba
  2. Enter the following query to create a new target table in the sample data warehouse, which is in the ODI_DEMO schema. The following query defines a few columns that match the Tasks table in Todoist: CREATE TABLE ODI_DEMO.TRG_TASKS (PRIORITY NUMBER(20,0),Id VARCHAR2(255));
  3. In ODI expand the Models accordion in the Designer navigator and double-click the Sales Administration node in the ODI_DEMO folder. The model is opened in the Model Editor.
  4. Click Reverse Engineer. The TRG_TASKS table is added to the model.
  5. Right-click the Mappings node in your project and click New Mapping. Enter a name for the mapping and clear the Create Empty Dataset option. The Mapping Editor is displayed.
  6. Drag the TRG_TASKS table from the Sales Administration model onto the mapping.
  7. Drag the Tasks table from the Todoist model onto the mapping.
  8. Click the source connector point and drag to the target connector point. The Attribute Matching dialog is displayed. For this example, use the default options. The target expressions are then displayed in the properties for the target columns.
  9. Open the Physical tab of the Mapping Editor and click TASKS_AP in TARGET_GROUP.
  10. In the TASKS_AP properties, select LKM SQL to SQL (Built-In) on the Loading Knowledge Module tab.

You can then run the mapping to load Todoist data into Oracle.

Ready to get started?

Connect to live data from Todoist with the API Driver

Connect to Todoist