Using the CData ODBC Driver for JotForm in PyCharm

The CData ODBC Drivers can be used in any environment that supports loading an ODBC Driver. In this tutorial we will explore using the CData ODBC Driver for JotForm from within PyCharm. Included are steps for adding the CData ODBC Driver as a data source, as well as basic PyCharm code to query the data source and display results.

To begin, this tutorial will assume that you have already installed the CData ODBC Driver for JotForm as well as PyCharm.

Add Pyodbc to the Project

Follow the steps below to add the pyodbc module to your project.

1. Click File -> Settings to open the project settings window.
2. Click Project Interpreter from the Project: YourProjectName menu.
3. To add pyodbc, click the + button and enter pyodbc.
4. Click Install Package to install pyodbc.

Connect to JotForm

You can now connect with an ODBC connection string or a DSN. See the Getting Started section in the CData driver documentation for a guide to creating a DSN on your OS.

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

JotForm API Profile Settings

Find your JotForm API Key in order to authenticate. To obtain an API Key, go to 'My Account' > 'API Section' > 'Create a New API Key'. Once you've created your new API Key, you can set it in the ProfileSettings connection property.

Custom Enterprise API Domains

Enterprise customers of JotForm are given custom API domains to connect to, rather than the default 'api.jotform.com' domain. If you are an enterprise JotForm customer, then set Domain to you custom API hostname, such as 'your-domain.com' or 'subdomain.jotform.com', inside the ProfileSettings connection property. Conversely, if you do not have a custom domain and still need to connect to 'api.jotform.com', then leave Domain undefined and set only APIKey.

Below is the syntax for a DSN:

[CData API Source]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for JotForm
Description = My Description
Profile = C:\profiles\JotForm.apip
ProfileSettings = 'APIKey = my_api_key
Domain = my_custom_domain'

Execute SQL to JotForm

Instantiate a Cursor and use the execute method of the Cursor class to execute any SQL statement.

import pyodbc

cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DRIVER={CData ODBC Driver for API};Profile = C:\profiles\JotForm.apip;ProfileSettings = 'APIKey = my_api_key;Domain = my_custom_domain';')
cursor = cnxn.cursor()
cursor.execute("SELECT Id, Title FROM Forms WHERE Status = 'ENABLED'")
rows = cursor.fetchall()
for row in rows:
 print(row.Id, row.Title)

After connecting to JotForm in PyCharm using the CData ODBC Driver, you will be able to build Python apps with access to JotForm data as if it were a standard database. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback regarding this tutorial, please contact us at [email protected].