Connect to Google Ads Data in Ruby

The CData ODBC Driver for Google AdWords makes it easy to integrate connectivity to live Google Ads data in Ruby. This article shows how to create a simple Ruby app that connects to Google Ads data, executes a query, and displays the results.

Create an ODBC Connection to Google Ads Data

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.

Google uses the OAuth authentication standard. To access Google APIs on behalf on individual users, you can use the embedded credentials or you can register your own OAuth app.

OAuth also enables you to use a service account to connect on behalf of users in a Google Apps domain. To authenticate with a service account, register an application to obtain the OAuth JWT values.

In addition to the OAuth values, specify the DeveloperToken and ClientCustomerId.

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

Installing Ruby and Necessary Gems

If you do not have Ruby installed, refer to the Ruby installation page. With Ruby installed, you will need to install the ruby-dbi, dbd-odbc, and ruby-odbc gems:

gem install dbi
gem install dbd-odbc
gem install ruby-odbc

Create a Ruby App with Connectivity to Google Ads Data

Create a new Ruby file (for example: GoogleAdsSelect.rb) and open it in a text editor. Copy the following code into your file:

#connect to the DSN
require 'dbi'
cnxn = DBI.connect('DBI:ODBC:CData GoogleAds Source','','')

#execute a SELECT query and store the result set
resultSet = cnxn.execute("SELECT Device, Clicks FROM CampaignPerformance")

#display the names of the columns
resultSet.column_names.each do |name|
 print name, "\t"
end
puts

#display the results
while row = resultSet.fetch do
 (0..resultSet.column_names.size - 1).each do |n|
 print row[n], "\t"
 end
 puts
end
resultSet.finish

#close the connection
cnxn.disconnect if cnxn

With the file completed, you are ready to display your Google Ads data with Ruby. To do so, simply run your file from the command line:

ruby GoogleAdsSelect.rb

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