Build a PostgreSQL Interface for Facebook Ads Data using the CData JDBC Driver

There are a vast number of PostgreSQL clients available on the Internet. From standard Drivers to BI and Analytics tools, PostgreSQL is a popular interface for data access. Using our JDBC Drivers, you can now create PostgreSQL entry-points that you can connect to from any standard client.

To access Facebook Ads data as a PostgreSQL database, use the CData JDBC Driver for Facebook Ads and a JDBC foreign data wrapper (FDW). In this article, we compile the FDW, install it, and query Facebook Ads data from PostgreSQL Server.

Connect to Facebook Ads Data as a JDBC Data Source

To connect to Facebook Ads as a JDBC data source, you will need the following:

• Driver JAR path: The JAR is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.

• Driver class:

  cdata.jdbc.facebookads.FacebookAdsDriver
  

• JDBC URL: The URL must start with "jdbc:facebookads:" and can include any of the connection properties in name-value pairs 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 Ads JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

  java -jar cdata.jdbc.facebookads.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:facebookads:InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;
  

Build the JDBC Foreign Data Wrapper

The Foreign Data Wrapper can be installed as an extension to PostgreSQL, without recompiling PostgreSQL. The jdbc2_fdw extension is used as an example (downloadable here).

1. Add a symlink from the shared object for your version of the JRE to /usr/lib/libjvm.so. For example:

   ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server/libjvm.so /usr/lib/libjvm.so
   

2. Start the build:

   make install USE_PGXS=1
   

Query Facebook Ads Data as a PostgreSQL Database

After you have installed the extension, follow the steps below to start executing queries to Facebook Ads data:

1. Log into your database.
2. Load the extension for the database:

   CREATE EXTENSION jdbc2_fdw;
   

3. Create a server object for Facebook Ads:

   CREATE SERVER FacebookAds 
   FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER jdbc2_fdw OPTIONS (
   drivername 'cdata.jdbc.facebookads.FacebookAdsDriver',
   url 'jdbc:facebookads:InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;',
   querytimeout '15',
   jarfile '/home/MyUser/CData/CData\ JDBC\ Driver\ for\ Salesforce MyDriverEdition/lib/cdata.jdbc.facebookads.jar'); 
   

4. Create a user mapping for the username and password of a user known to the MySQL daemon.

   CREATE USER MAPPING for postgres SERVER FacebookAds OPTIONS (
   username 'admin', 
   password 'test');
   

5. Create a foreign table in your local database:

   postgres=# CREATE FOREIGN TABLE adaccounts (
   adaccounts_id text,
   adaccounts_AccountId text,
   adaccounts_Name numeric) 
   SERVER FacebookAds OPTIONS (
   table_name 'adaccounts');
   

You can now execute read/write commands to Facebook Ads:

postgres=# SELECT * FROM adaccounts;