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Get the Report →Connect to Twitter Data from PowerBuilder
This article demonstrates how to use the CData ODBC Driver for Twitter to connect to Twitter data and execute queries in PowerBuilder.
The CData ODBC Driver for Twitter can be used from any platform or development technology that supports ODBC, including PowerBuilder. This article shows how to connect to Twitter data and execute queries from the Database Painter and controls such as the DataWindow.
Connect to Twitter as an ODBC Data Source
If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.
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.
Create a Profile for the ODBC Driver for Twitter
Follow the steps below to use the Database Painter tool to create a database profile based on an ODBC DSN (data source name) for Twitter. In the Database Painter, you can use wizards and the UI to work with Twitter data.
- In PowerBuilder, click Tools -> Database Painter.
- In the Objects window in the Database Painter, right-click the ODBC node and click New Profile.
- On the Connection tab, enter a name for the profile and select the Twitter DSN in the Data Source menu.
- To view and modify a table, right-click a table and then click Edit Data -> Grid.

Using Twitter Data with PowerBuilder Controls
You can use standard PowerBuilder objects to connect to ODBC data sources and execute queries. The following example shows how to retrieve Twitter data into a DataWindow. You can add the following code to the open method:
SQLCA.DBMS = "ODBC"
SQLCA.DBParm = "ConnectString='DSN=CData Twitter Source'"
CONNECT USING SQLCA;
dw_tweets.SetTransObject(SQLCA);
dw_tweets.Retrieve();