DropBox Connector for Talend Studio

Read / write DropBox data inside your app; perform many DropBox operations without coding, just use easy to use high performance API Connector for DropBox

In this article you will learn how to quickly and efficiently integrate DropBox data in Talend Studio without coding. We will use high-performance DropBox Connector to easily connect to DropBox and then access the data inside Talend Studio.

Let's follow the steps below to see how we can accomplish that!

Download Documentation

DropBox Connector for Talend Studio is based on ZappySys API Driver which is part of ODBC PowerPack. It is a collection of high-performance ODBC drivers that enable you to integrate data in SQL Server, SSIS, a programming language, or any other ODBC-compatible application. ODBC PowerPack supports various file formats, sources and destinations, including REST/SOAP API, SFTP/FTP, storage services, and plain files, to mention a few.

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Connect to DropBox in ODBC

Create Data Source in ZappySys Data Gateway based on API Driver

Download and install ODBC PowerPack.
Search for gateway in start menu and Open ZappySys Data Gateway:
Go to Users Tab to add our first Gateway user. Click Add; we will give it a name tdsuser and enter password you like to give. Check Admin option and click OK to save. We will use these details later when we create linked server:
Now we are ready to add a data source. Click Add, give data source a name (Copy this name somewhere, we will need it later) and then select Native - ZappySys API Driver. Finally, click OK. And it will create the Data Set for it and open the ZS driver UI.

DropboxDSN
When the Configuration window appears give your data source a name if you haven't done that already, then select "DropBox" from the list of Popular Connectors. If "DropBox" is not present in the list, then click "Search Online" and download it. Then set the path to the location where you downloaded it. Finally, click Continue >> to proceed with configuring the DSN:

DropboxDSN

DropBox
Now it's time to configure the Connection Manager. Select Authentication Type, e.g. Token Authentication. Then select API Base URL (in most cases, the default one is the right one). More info is available in the Authentication section.
User Account [OAuth]
Steps how to get and use DropBox credentials : User Account [OAuth]

To use OAuth authentication, firstly, you need to create OAuth application:

Log into your DropBox account.

Go to DropBox My Apps.

Then press Create app button to create a new app:

Once a new page opens, select Scoped access option:

Next, select Full Dropbox to access all files and folders or App folder to access specific folder's files and folders option.

Continue by giving your app a name.

Then check I agree to Dropbox API Terms and Conditions checkbox.

Click Create app button.

Once a new page opens, click Enable additional teams and Enable additional users buttons:

Then copy App key and App secret and copy paste them into your favorite text editor (you will need them later).

Proceed by setting a Redirect URI and clicking Add button.
NOTE: If you don't have a working Redirect URI, you can use https://zappysys.com/oauth (it's safe).

Then click on Permissions tab and select application scopes:

Select all Individual Scopes and Team Scopes if you want to manage team data.

Click Submit button.

Now go to SSIS package or ODBC data source and in User Account authentication set these parameters:

For ClientId field use App key value.

For ClientSecret field use App secret value.

For ReturnUrl field use Redirect URI value.
Done! Now you are ready to use Dropbox Connector!

NOTE: If you are planning to use your current data connection/token for automated processes, we recommend that you use a generic account for token generation when the login box appears (e.g. sales_automation@mycompany.com instead of bob_smith@mycompany.com). When you use a personal account which is tied to a specific employee profile and that employee leaves the company, the token may become invalid and any automated processes using that token will fail. Another potentially unwanted effect of using a personal token is incorrect logging; the API calls (e.g. Read, Edit, Delete, Upload) made with that token will record the specific user as performing the calls instead of an automated process.

Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:

DropboxDSN

DropBox

User Account [OAuth]

https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/

Required Parameters
UseCustomApp	Fill-in the parameter...
ReturnUrl	Fill-in the parameter...
Optional Parameters
ClientId
ClientSecret
Scope
RetryMode	RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
RetryStatusCodeList	429
RetryCountMax	5
RetryMultiplyWaitTime	True

Read DropBox data in Talend Studio

To read DropBox data in Talend Studio, we'll need to complete several steps. Let's get through them all right away!

This article is compatible with Talend Open Studio (a free version, currently retired by Qlik). If you don't have it, you can still purchase a shareware version of Talend Studio from Qlik.

Create connection for input

First of all, open Talend Studio

Create a new connection:

Creating a new connection in Talend Studio

Select Microsoft SQL Server connection:

Creating SQL Server connection in Talend Studio

Name your connection:

Fill-in connection parameters and then click Test connection:

DropboxDSN

Configuring the ZappySys Data Gateway connection in Talend Studio

If the List of modules not installed for this operation window shows up, then download and install all of them:

Review and accept all additional module license agreements during the process

Finally, you should see a successful connection test result at the end:

Add input

Once we have a connection to ZappySys Data Gateway created, we can proceed by creating a job:

Simply drag and drop ZappySys Data Gateway connection onto the job:

Creating an input based on ZappySys Data Gateway connection

Then create an input based on ZappySys Data Gateway connection:

Continue by configuring a SQL query and click Guess schema button:

Configuring a SQL query in Talend Studio

Finish by configuring the schema, for example:

Add output

Palette

tFileOutputDelimited

Run the job

Actions supported by DropBox Connector

Learn how to perform common DropBox actions directly in Talend Studio with these how-to guides:

Conclusion

In this article we showed you how to connect to DropBox in Talend Studio and integrate data without any coding, saving you time and effort. It's worth noting that ZappySys API Driver allows you to connect not only to DropBox, but to any Java application that supports JDBC (just use a different JDBC driver and configure it appropriately).

We encourage you to download DropBox Connector for Talend Studio and see how easy it is to use it for yourself or your team.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact ZappySys support team. You can also open a live chat immediately by clicking on the chat icon below.