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URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/smartsheet-jdbc-mulesoft-anypoint.rst

⇱ Access Smartsheet Data in Mule Applications Using the CData JDBC Driver

Access Smartsheet Data in Mule Applications Using the CData JDBC Driver

👁 Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Create a simple Mule Application that uses HTTP and SQL with CData JDBC drivers to create a JSON endpoint for Smartsheet data.

The CData JDBC Driver for Smartsheet connects Smartsheet data to Mule applications enabling read , write, update, and delete functionality with familiar SQL queries. The JDBC Driver allows users to easily create Mule applications to backup, transform, report, and analyze Smartsheet data.

This article demonstrates how to use the CData JDBC Driver for Smartsheet inside of a Mule project to create a Web interface for Smartsheet data. The application created allows you to request Smartsheet data using an HTTP request and have the results returned as JSON. The exact same procedure outlined below can be used with any CData JDBC Driver to create a Web interface for the hundreds of available data sources.

About Smartsheet Data Integration

CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from Smartsheet. Customers use CData connectivity to:

  • Read and write attachments, columns, comments and discussions.
  • View the data in individuals cells, report on cell history, and more.
  • Perform Smartsheet-specific actions like deleting or downloading attachments, creating, copying, deleting, or moving sheets, and moving or copying rows to another sheet.

Users frequently integrate Smartsheet with analytics tools such as Tableau, Crystal Reports, and Excel. Others leverage our tools to replicate Smartsheet data to databases or data warehouses.


Getting Started


  1. Create a new Mule Project in Anypoint Studio.
  2. Add an HTTP Connector to the Message Flow.
  3. Configure the address for the HTTP Connector. 👁 Add and Configure the HTTP Connector
  4. Add a Database Select Connector to the same flow, after the HTTP Connector.
  5. Create a new Connection (or edit an existing one) and configure the properties.
    • Set Connection to "Generic Connection"
    • Select the CData JDBC Driver JAR file in the Required Libraries section (e.g. cdata.jdbc.smartsheet.jar). 👁 Adding the JAR file (Salesforce is shown).
    • Set the URL to the connection string for Smartsheet

      Smartsheet uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, register an app to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties.

      However, for testing purposes you can instead use the Personal Access Token you get when you create an application; set this to the OAuthAccessToken connection property.

      Built-in Connection String Designer

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

      		java -jar cdata.jdbc.smartsheet.jar

      Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

    • Set the Driver class name to cdata.jdbc.smartsheet.SmartsheetDriver. 👁 A configured Database Connection (Salesforce is shown).
    • Click Test Connection.
  6. Set the SQL Query Text to a SQL query to request Smartsheet data. For example: 
    SELECT TaskName, Progress FROM Sheet_Event_Plan_Budget
    👁 Configure the Select object (Salesforce is Shown)
  7. Add a Transform Message Component to the flow.
  8. Set the Output script to the following to convert the payload to JSON: 
    %dw 2.0
output application/json
---
payload
    👁 Add the Transform Message Component to the Flow
  9. To view your Smartsheet data, navigate to the address you configured for the HTTP Connector (localhost:8081 by default): http://localhost:8081. The Smartsheet data is available as JSON in your Web browser and any other tools capable of consuming JSON endpoints.

At this point, you have a simple Web interface for working with Smartsheet data (as JSON data) in custom apps and a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools. Download a free, 30 day trial of the JDBC Driver for Smartsheet and see the CData difference in your Mule Applications today.