Connect to Helpscout Data in NetBeans

The CData JDBC Driver for Helpscout integrates connectivity to live Helpscout data in IDEs that support JDBC. The JDBC standard enables you to use built-in data access wizards and other tools supporting rapid development. This article shows how to connect to Helpscout data in NetBeans. You will create a connection and load Helpscout data in the Table Editor.

Create a JDBC Data Source for Helpscout in NetBeans

To create the JDBC data source, expand the Database node in the Service window, right-click the Drivers node, and select New Driver. In the New Driver wizard that results, enter the following information:

• Driver File(s): Click Add and, in the file explorer dialog that appears, select the cdata.jdbc.api.jar file. The driver JAR is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
• Driver Class: Click Find to search for the driver class inside the JAR. Then select cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver from the menu.
• Name: Enter the name for the driver.

Define Connection Parameters

Follow the steps below to define required connection properties:

1. In the Service window, right-click the Database node and click New Connection.

2. In the New Connection Wizard, enter the following connection properties:

   • Driver Name: In the menu, select the CData JDBC Driver for Helpscout.
   • User Name: Enter the username. This can also be defined in the JDBC URL.
   • Password: Enter the password. This can also be defined in the JDBC URL.

   • JDBC URL: Specify the JDBC URL.

     Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the Helpscout Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\Helpscout.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Helpscout (see below).

     Helpscout API Profile Settings

     Generate an API key in Help Scout by going to Your Profile > Authentication > Generate an API Key.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Helpscout 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.

     👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)
     

     A typical JDBC URL is the following:

     jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\Helpscout.apip;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key';

Query Helpscout Data

To connect to Helpscout data, right-click the connection in the Database node and click Connect. After the connection is established, you can expand it to discover schema information.

To load a table in the Data Views window, right-click the table and then click View Data..