Connect to Exa Data in RapidMiner

This article shows how you can easily integrate the CData JDBC driver for Exa into your processes in RapidMiner. This article uses the CData JDBC Driver for Exa to transfer Exa data to a process in RapidMiner.

Connect to Exa in RapidMiner as a JDBC Data Source

You can follow the procedure below to establish a JDBC connection to Exa:

1. Add a new database driver for Exa: Click Connections -> Manage Database Drivers.
2. In the resulting wizard, click the Add button and enter a name for the connection.
3. Enter the prefix for the JDBC URL:

   jdbc:api:
   

4. Enter the path to the cdata.jdbc.api.jar file, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
5. Enter the driver class:

   cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver
   

   👁 The JDBC driver configuration. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
6. Create a new Exa connection: Click Connections -> Manage Database Connections.
7. Enter a name for your connection.
8. For Database System, select the Exa driver you configured previously.
9. Enter your connection string in the Host box.

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

   Exa API Profile Settings

   Visit dashboard.exa.ai, sign in or create an account, and generate an API key from your API settings.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.api.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 connection string is below:

   Profile=C:\profiles\Exa.apip;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key';
   

10. Enter your username and password if necessary. 👁 The connection to the JDBC data source. (Salesforce is shown.)
    

You can now use your Exa connection with the various RapidMiner operators in your process. To retrieve Exa data, drag the Retrieve operator from the Operators view. 👁 A Retrieve operation to select data. (Salesforce is shown.)
With the Retrieve operator selected, you can then define which table to retrieve in the Parameters view by clicking the folder icon next to the "repository entry." In the resulting Repository Browser, you can expand your connection node to select the desired example set.

Finally, wire the output to the Retrieve process to a result, and run the process to see the Exa data.