Connect to Drip Data from PowerBuilder via ODBC

The CData ODBC Driver for Drip can be used from any platform or development technology that supports ODBC, including PowerBuilder. This article shows how to connect to Drip data and execute queries from the Database Painter and controls such as the DataWindow.

Connect to Drip 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.

Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the Drip Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\Drip.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Drip (see below).

Drip API Profile Settings

To use Token Authentication, specify your APIKey within the ProfileSettings connection property. The APIKey should be set to your Drip personal API Token.

Create a Profile for the ODBC Driver for Drip

Follow the steps below to use the Database Painter tool to create a database profile based on an ODBC DSN (data source name) for Drip. In the Database Painter, you can use wizards and the UI to work with Drip data.

1. In PowerBuilder, click Tools -> Database Painter.
2. In the Objects window in the Database Painter, right-click the ODBC node and click New Profile.
3. On the Connection tab, enter a name for the profile and select the Drip DSN in the Data Source menu. 👁 The ODBC DSN, required to create the Database Profile. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
4. To view and modify a table, right-click a table and then click Edit Data -> Grid.

Using Drip 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 Drip data into a DataWindow. You can add the following code to the open method:

SQLCA.DBMS = "ODBC"
SQLCA.DBParm = "ConnectString='DSN=CData API Source'"
CONNECT USING SQLCA;
dw_broadcasts.SetTransObject(SQLCA);
dw_broadcasts.Retrieve();