Connect to Hacker News Data in HULFT Integrate

HULFT Integrate is a modern data integration platform that provides a drag-and-drop user interface to create cooperation flows, data conversion, and processing so that complex data connections are easier than ever to execute. When paired with the CData API Driver for JDBC, HULFT Integrate can work with live Hacker News data. This article explains how to connect to Hacker News and move the data into a CSV file.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData JDBC driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Hacker News data. When you issue complex SQL queries to Hacker News, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Hacker News and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (often SQL functions and JOIN operations). Its built-in dynamic metadata querying allows you to work with and analyze Hacker News data using native data types.

Enable Access to Hacker News

To enable access to Hacker News data from HULFT Integrate projects:

1. Copy the CData JDBC Driver JAR file (and license file if it exists), cdata.jdbc.api.jar (and cdata.jdbc.api.lic), to the jdbc_adapter subfolder for the Integrate Server
2. Restart the HULFT Integrate Server and launch HULFT Integrate Studio

Build a Project with Access to Hacker News Data

Once you copy the JAR files, you can create a project with access to Hacker News data. Start by opening Integrate Studio and creating a new project.

1. Name the project
2. Ensure the "Create script" checkbox is checked
3. Click Next 👁 Creating a new project.
   
4. Name the script (e.g.: APItoCSV)

Once you create the project, add components to the script to copy Hacker News data to a CSV file.

Configure an Execute Select SQL Component

Drag an "Execute Select SQL" component from the Tool Palette (Database -> JDBC) into the Script workspace.

1. In the "Required settings" tab for the Destination, click "Add" to create a new connection for Hacker News. Set the following properties:
   • Name: Hacker News Connection Settings
   • Driver class name: cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver
   • URL: jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\HackerNews.apip;AuthScheme=None
     
     👁 JDBC connection settings (Salesforce is shown).
     

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Hacker News 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.

     Connecting to HackerNews

     The HackerNews API (powered by Firebase) is a public API that requires no authentication. You can connect and query data immediately without any credentials.

     After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

     • AuthScheme: Set this to None.

     Example connection string:

     Profile=C:\profiles\HackerNews.apip;AuthScheme=None
     

     👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)
     
2. Write your SQL statement. For example:

   SELECT , FROM TopStories

3. Click "Extraction test" to ensure the connection and query are configured properly
4. Click "Execute SQL statement and set output schema"
5. Click "Finish" 👁 Configuring the Execute Select SQL operation
   

Configure a Write CSV File Component

Drag a "Write CSV File" component from the Tool Palette (File -> CSV) onto the workspace.

1. Set a file to write the query results to (e.g. TopStories.csv)
2. Set "Input data" to the "Select SQL" component
3. Add columns for each field selected in the SQL query
4. In the "Write settings" tab, check the checkbox to "Insert column names into first row"
5. Click "Finish"

Map Hacker News Fields to the CSV Columns

Map each column from the "Select" component to the corresponding column for the "CSV" component.

Finish the Script

Drag the "Start" component onto the "Select" component and the "CSV" component onto the "End" component. Build the script and run the script to move Hacker News data into a CSV file.

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData API Driver for JDBC and start working with your live Hacker News data in HULFT Integrate. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.