Connect to Airtable Data in CloverDX (formerly CloverETL)

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

Connect to Airtable as a JDBC Data Source

1. Create the connection to Airtable 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.airtable.jar file.
3. Enter the JDBC URL.

   APIKey, BaseId and TableNames parameters are required to connect to Airtable. ViewNames is an optional parameter where views of the tables may be specified.

   • APIKey : API Key of your account. To obtain this value, after logging in go to Account. In API section click Generate API key.
   • BaseId : Id of your base. To obtain this value, it is in the same section as the APIKey. Click on Airtable API, or navigate to https://airtable.com/api and select a base. In the introduction section you can find "The ID of this base is appxxN2ftedc0nEG7."
   • TableNames : A comma separated list of table names for the selected base. These are the same names of tables as found in the UI.
   • ViewNames : A comma separated list of views in the format of (table.view) names. These are the same names of the views as found in the UI.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.airtable.jar
   

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

   👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)
   

   A typical JDBC URL is below:

   jdbc:airtable:APIKey=keymz3adb53RqsU;BaseId=appxxN2fe34r3rjdG7;TableNames=Table1,...;ViewNames=Table1.View1,...;

Query Airtable 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 Airtable JDBC data source from the drop-down menu.
3. Enter the SQL query. For example:

   SELECT Id, Column1 FROM SampleTable_1 WHERE Column2 = 'SomeValue'

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 SampleTable_1 table. (You can also open this menu by right-clicking the input port for the UniversalDataWriter.)
6. Click Run to write to the file.