How to connect to Facebook Data from IntelliJ

The CData JDBC Driver for Facebook enables you to access Facebook as a JDBC data source, providing integration with rapid development tools in IDEs. This article shows how to use the data source configuration wizard to connect to Facebook data in IntelliJ.

Create a JBDC Data Source for Facebook

Follow the steps below to add the driver JAR and define connection properties required to connect to Facebook data.

1. In the Data Sources window, right-click and then click Add Data Source -> DB Data Source.

2. In the Data Source Properties dialog that appears, the following properties are required:

   • JDBC Driver Files: Click the button next to this menu to add the JDBC Driver file cdata.jdbc.facebook.jar, located in the installation directory.
   • JDBC Driver Class: In this menu, select cdata.jdbc.facebook.FacebookDriver from the list.

   • Database URL: Enter the connection URL in the JDBC URL property. The URL must start with jdbc:facebook: and includes connection properties separated with semicolons.

     Most tables require user authentication as well as application authentication. Facebook uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate to Facebook, you can use the embedded OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL or you can obtain your own by registering an app with Facebook.

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

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.facebook.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 the following:

     jdbc:facebook:InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;

Edit and Save Facebook Data

To discover schema information, right-click the data source you just created and click Refresh Tables. To query a table, right-click it and then click Open Tables Editor. You can also modify records in the Table Editor.