Connecting to Twitter

The Sisense Twitter connector is a certified connector that allows you to import data from the Twitter API into Sisense via the Sisense generic JDBC connector. The Twitter connector offers the most natural way to connect to Twitter integration capabilities including Search, GeoSearch, UserInfo, DirectMessages, Followers, and provides additional powerful features.

The support for the connector is provided by Sisense and will be assisted by the certification partner's support, if needed. For any support issues or additional functionality requests, contact your Sisense representative or open a request through the Sisense Help Center. For advanced inquiries specific to driver functionality, you can also contact the certification partner's support directly via support@cdata.com.

After you have downloaded the driver, you can connect through a connection string in Sisense. The connection string is used to authenticate users who want to connect to Twitter. Once you have connected to Twitter, you can import a variety of tables from the Twitter API.

This page describes how to download the Twitter driver and deploy it, how to connect to Twitter with a connection string, provides information about the Twitter data model, and more.

Downloading the Twitter JDBC Driver

You can download the Twitter JDBC driver here .

For a short video about downloading the driver, see below (the video uses the Box driver as an example).

Deploying the Twitter JDBC Driver

Prerequisite: The install file (setup.jar) is a Java Application that requires Java 6 (J2SE) or above to run.

To install the driver, double-click the setup.jar file and proceed with the instructions in the installation wizard.

Depending on the machine on which you are accessing the Sisense application, install the driver in one of the following locations:

• When Sisense is installed on your local machine, deploy the driver locally.

• For a non-local installation (when accessing Sisense on a remote Windows server, or accessing the Sisense hosted cloud environment), select one of the below methods:

  • Deploy the driver on the Sisense server machine, and then perform all the authentication on the server machine.

  • Deploy the driver on your local machine (or any other machine, as convenient), perform all the authentication on that machine, and then copy the JAR file to the remote server.

    For detailed instructions, see Copying a CData JAR File Installed Locally to a Remote Server.

• If you are on a Linux deployment, deploy the driver on your local machine (or any other machine), perform all the authentication on that machine, and then copy the JAR file to this location:

  /opt/sisense/storage/connectors/jdbcdrivers/driver_name_folder.

  For detailed instructions, see Copying a CData JAR File Installed Locally to a Remote Server.

For a short video of the process, see below (the video uses the Box driver as an example).

JAVA Troubleshooting

If you do not have Java 6 installed, you may download it from here.

If your system is not set up to run Java applications, execute the following command: java -jar setup.jar

Connecting to Twitter

After you have installed the Twitter connector, you can import your data from Twitter by connecting with a connection string. The connection string contains your Twitter user credentials. Twitter uses the connection string to authenticate your account and allow you to extract the relevant data for your account.

The connector by default uses the embedded credentials for the CData app. This Twitter app can be used for reading data. The embedded app is not able to read data from Ads or write data due to Twitter restrictions.

Alternatively, you can obtain your own credentials by registering an app.

To create a Twitter App:

Follow the steps below to obtain the OAuth client credentials:

1. Log in to https://dev.twitter.com/apps.

2. Click Create New App.

3. Enter the name, description, and website to be displayed to users when they connect.

4. Define the Callback URL setting.

   • If you are making a Web app, set the Callback URL to the URL you would like users to be returned to after they have granted your application privileges.

   • If you are making a desktop application, set the Callback URL to http://localhost:33333/.

   Once you have created the app, you will be redirected to a page with information about your app.

5. If you intend to communicate with Twitter only as the currently authenticated user, then obtain the OAuthAccessToken and OAuthAccessTokenSecret directly from this page on Twitter. The OAuthAccessToken and OAuthAccessTokenSecret are listed under the OAuth Settings in the Your Access Token section. You can then connect by setting these connection string properties.

If you need to generate access tokens for other user accounts besides the one you used to create the app on Twitter, use the Consumer Key and Consumer Secret (found in the Keys and Access Tokens tab of your app settings).

To create the connection string:

1. Open the lib directory for the connector. The default path is: C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for <Driver Name> 2019\lib

2. Double-click the JAR file in the lib directory.

   

   Alternatively, to open the JAR file from the command line, enter the following command in the command prompt (change the driver name to your driver):

   cd C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for <Driver Name> 2019\lib

   Press Enter and then enter the following command (change the driver name to your driver):

   "C:\Program Files\Sisense\infra\jre\bin\java.exe" -jar cdata.jdbc.<Driver Name>.jar

   Press Enter again.

   Example:

   

   The Connection String Builder opens.

3. Enter the values for the following connection properties (click in the Value column to enter a value or to modify an existing value):

   • OAuthClientId: Set this to the Consumer Key in your app settings.
   • OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the Consumer Secret in your app settings.
   • OAuthAccessToken: Set this to the access token for connecting using OAuth, obtained from your app.
   • OAuthAccessTokenSecret: Set this to OAuth access token secret for connecting using OAuth, obtained from your app.

4. If the Connection String Builder has a InitiateOAuth property, set it to OFF to avoid entering the OAuth Authorization process.

   Note:

   This property may not appear for some connectors.

5. Press Enter to add all the connection properties to the connection string.

   Example:

   A sample connection string:

   jdbc:twitter:InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;

6. Click Test Connection. A new browser tab opens where you need to log in to your application in order to grant access.

   Close the Authorization Successful! message that opens.

7. Go back to the Connection String Builder dialog, and click OK in the Test Connection Successful message to close it.

8. Click Copy to Clipboard to obtain the connection string.

For a short video of the process, see below (the video uses the XML driver as an example):

You are required to complete the above instructions only on first connect, and again when your credentials to the application change.

To help you create a connection string and test the connection, see Connection String Builder for Certified Connectors.

If you have any issues connecting to your data source, see Troubleshooting JDBC Data Connectors.

Adding Twitter Tables to your ElastiCube

2. Open Sisense. (For a non-local installation, open Sisense on the hosted cloud environment.)

2. In the Data page, open an ElastiCube or create a new ElastiCube.

3. In the Model Editor, click . The Add Data dialog box is displayed.

   

4. Click Generic JDBC to open the JDBC settings.

   

5. In Connection String, paste the string you obtained above.
6. In JDBC JARs Folder, enter the name of the directory where the Twitter JAR file is located (see Deploying the Twitter JDBC Driver).
7. In Driver's Class Name, enter the following class name: cdata.jdbc.twitter.TwitterDriver.
8. If you wish to secure the connection, enter your Twitter credentials in User Name and Password and remove the relevant properties from the connection string. Otherwise, leave these fields blank.
9. Click Next. A list of tables in the database are displayed. All tables and views associated with the database will appear in a new window.
10. From the Tables list, select the relevant table or view you want to work with. You can click next to the relevant table or click Preview to see a preview of the data inside it.
11. (Optional) Click + to customize the data you want to import with SQL. See Importing Data with Custom Queries for more information.
12. After you have selected all the relevant tables, click Done. The tables are added to your data model.

For a short video of the process, see below (the video uses the XML driver as an example):

Twitter Connector: Additional Resources

For the full documentation set for the Twitter connector, click here.

For connection string options, click here.

For data model options, click here.