Viewing Hacker News Data in RAD Studio Data Explorer

Embarcadero RAD Studio provides a development environment for Delphi and C++Builder applications. With the CData ODBC Driver for Hacker News, you gain access to live Hacker News data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to both retrieve Hacker News data. This article will walk through connecting to Hacker News using the Data Explorer.

Configure a Connection to Hacker News

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

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

Connecting to Hacker News Data Using Data Explorer

You can create a simple application for displaying Hacker News data by utilizing the CData FireDAC Components for Hacker News and a new VCL Forms Application:

1. Open the Data Explorer in RAD Studio and expand FireDAC.
2. Right-click the ODBC Data Source node in the Data Explorer.
3. Click Add New Connection. 👁 Adding a New Connection. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
4. Enter a name for the connection.
5. In the FireDAC Connection Editor that appears, set the DataSource property to the name of the ODBC DSN for Hacker News. 👁 Setting the Connection Parameters. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
6. Back in the Data Explorer, expand the views for the connection.

7. Create a new VCL Forms application and drag a view (for example: TopStories) onto the form.

   👁 Placing the View on the Form. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
8. Select the TopStoriesView object on the form and set the Active property to true.

9. Right-click on the object, bind visually, and link everything (*) to a new control (TStringGrid).

   👁 Visually Binding the View. (Salesforce is shown.)
   

10. Arrange the TStringGrid on the form and run the application to see the TopStories data.

    👁 The View data on a Form. (Salesforce is shown.)
    

Related Articles

Below you can find other articles for using the CData ODBC Driver with RAD Studio, Delphi, and C++ Builder.

• DataBind Controls to Hacker News Data in C++Builder
• DataBind Controls to Hacker News Data in Delphi
• Build a Simple VCL Application for Hacker News Data