Connect to SharePoint Data in RapidMiner

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

Getting Started

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Connect to SharePoint in RapidMiner as a JDBC Data Source

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

1. Add a new database driver for SharePoint: 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:sharepoint:
   

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

   cdata.jdbc.sharepoint.SharePointDriver
   

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

   Set the URL property to the base SharePoint site or to a sub-site. This allows you to query any lists and other SharePoint entities defined for the site or sub-site.

   The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid SharePoint user credentials when using SharePoint On-Premise.

   If you are connecting to SharePoint Online, set the SharePointEdition to SHAREPOINTONLINE along with the User and Password connection string properties. For more details on connecting to SharePoint Online, see the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation

   Built-in Connection String Designer

   For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the SharePoint JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.sharepoint.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=myuseraccount;Password=mypassword;Auth Scheme=NTLM;URL=http://sharepointserver/mysite;SharePointEdition=SharePointOnPremise;
   

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

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