Viewing CircleCI Data in RAD Studio Data Explorer

Embarcadero RAD Studio provides a development environment for Delphi and C++Builder applications. With the CData ODBC Driver for CircleCI, you gain access to live CircleCI data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to both retrieve CircleCI data. This article will walk through connecting to CircleCI using the Data Explorer.

Configure a Connection to CircleCI

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.

Using API Key Authentication

CircleCI uses personal API tokens to authenticate API requests. To generate a personal API token, log in to your CircleCI account, navigate to User Settings > Personal API Tokens, and click Create New Token. Copy the token value immediately as it is only shown once.

After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

• AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
• APIKey: Set this to your CircleCI personal API token.

Example connection string:

Profile=C:\profiles\CircleCI.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_personal_api_token';

Connecting to CircleCI Data Using Data Explorer

You can create a simple application for displaying CircleCI data by utilizing the CData FireDAC Components for CircleCI and a new VCL Forms Application:

1. Open the Data Explorer in RAD Studio and expand FireDAC.
2. Right-click the ODBC Data Source node in the Data Explorer.
3. Click Add New Connection. 👁 Adding a New Connection. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
4. Enter a name for the connection.
5. In the FireDAC Connection Editor that appears, set the DataSource property to the name of the ODBC DSN for CircleCI. 👁 Setting the Connection Parameters. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
6. Back in the Data Explorer, expand the views for the connection.

7. Create a new VCL Forms application and drag a view (for example: Artifacts) onto the form.

   👁 Placing the View on the Form. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
8. Select the ArtifactsView object on the form and set the Active property to true.

9. Right-click on the object, bind visually, and link everything (*) to a new control (TStringGrid).

   👁 Visually Binding the View. (Salesforce is shown.)
   

10. Arrange the TStringGrid on the form and run the application to see the Artifacts data.

    👁 The View data on a Form. (Salesforce is shown.)
    

Related Articles

Below you can find other articles for using the CData ODBC Driver with RAD Studio, Delphi, and C++ Builder.

• DataBind Controls to CircleCI Data in C++Builder
• DataBind Controls to CircleCI Data in Delphi
• Build a Simple VCL Application for CircleCI Data