Connect to Gmail Data in RapidMiner

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

Connect to Gmail in RapidMiner as a JDBC Data Source

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

1. Add a new database driver for Gmail: 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:gmail:
   

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

   cdata.jdbc.gmail.GmailDriver
   

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

   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 connection string is below:

   User=username;Password=password;
   

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

You can now use your Gmail connection with the various RapidMiner operators in your process. To retrieve Gmail 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 Gmail data.