Connect to Twitter Data in CloverDX (formerly CloverETL)

The CData JDBC Driver for Twitter enables you to use the data transformation components in CloverDX (formerly CloverETL) to work with Twitter as sources and destinations. In this article, you will use the JDBC Driver for Twitter to set up a simple transfer into a flat file. The CData JDBC Driver for Twitter enables you to use the data transformation components in CloverDX (formerly CloverETL) to work with Twitter as sources and destinations. In this article, you will use the JDBC Driver for Twitter to set up a simple transfer into a flat file.

Connect to Twitter as a JDBC Data Source

1. Create the connection to Twitter data. In a new CloverDX graph, right-click the Connections node in the Outline pane and click Connections -> Create Connection. The Database Connection wizard is displayed.
2. Click the plus icon to load a driver from a JAR. Browse to the lib subfolder of the installation directory and select the cdata.jdbc.twitter.jar file.
3. Enter the JDBC URL.

   All tables require authentication. You can connect using your User and Password or OAuth. To authenticate using OAuth, you can use the embedded OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL or you can register an app to obtain your own.

   If you intend to communicate with Twitter only as the currently authenticated user, then you can obtain the OAuthAccessToken and OAuthAccessTokenSecret directly by registering an app.

   See the Getting Started chapter in the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

   For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Twitter JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.twitter.jar

   Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

   A typical JDBC URL is below:

   jdbc:twitter:InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH

Query Twitter Data with the DBInputTable Component

1. Drag a DBInputTable from the Readers selection of the Palette onto the job flow and double-click it to open the configuration editor.
2. In the DB connection property, select the Twitter JDBC data source from the drop-down menu.
3. Enter the SQL query. For example: SELECT From_User_Name, Retweet_Count FROM Tweets

Write the Output of the Query to a UniversalDataWriter

1. Drag a UniversalDataWriter from the Writers selection onto the jobflow.
2. Double-click the UniversalDataWriter to open the configuration editor and add a file URL.
3. Right-click the DBInputTable and then click Extract Metadata.
4. Connect the output port of the DBInputTable to the UniversalDataWriter.
5. In the resulting Select Metadata menu for the UniversalDataWriter, choose the Tweets table. (You can also open this menu by right-clicking the input port for the UniversalDataWriter.)
6. Click Run to write to the file.