How to connect to Gmail Data from IntelliJ

The CData JDBC Driver for Gmail enables you to access Gmail 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 Gmail data in IntelliJ.

Create a JBDC Data Source for Gmail

Follow the steps below to add the driver JAR and define connection properties required to connect to Gmail 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.gmail.jar, located in the installation directory.
   • JDBC Driver Class: In this menu, select cdata.jdbc.gmail.GmailDriver from the list.

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

     There are two ways to authenticate to Gmail. Before selecting one, first ensure that you have enabled IMAP access in your Gmail account settings. See the "Connecting to Gmail" section under "Getting Started" in the installed documentation for a guide.

     The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, can be set to valid Gmail user credentials.

     Alternatively, instead of providing the Password, you can use the OAuth authentication standard. To access Google APIs on behalf on individual users, you can use the embedded credentials or you can register your own OAuth app.

     OAuth also enables you to use a service account to connect on behalf of users in a Google Apps domain. To authenticate with a service account, register an application to obtain the OAuth JWT values.

     In addition to the OAuth values, provide the User. See the "Getting Started" chapter in 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 Gmail JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.gmail.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:gmail:User=username;Password=password;

Edit and Save Gmail 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.