Connecting to Twitter - Informatica Powercenter Express

We can create a Twitter connection to read historical or real-time Twitter data through the Data Integration Service. For example, we can create a Twitter connection and define a query that searches for tweets containing a keyword such as Informatica. For real-time data, use a Twitter streaming connection to continuously read tweets that include a keyword. You can load the extracted data to a target and then use the data for data mining and analysis. 

Create Twitter Application

1. If you are creating a Twitter Connection for the first time, you would need to create a Twitter application  first on Twitter Developer website https://apps.twitter.com/

2. Then login and select the Create New App on the Right hand top corner.

3. Fill up the form with details like Name of the app, description, website and Callback URL. Note that, Callback URL can be a placeholder URL. If you keep it empty, it might give you error while fetching data using Informatica.

4. Agree to the Developer Agreement and Create your Twitter Application.

5. Once the Application is created, the screen will show Consumer Key. Click on the manage Keys and access Tokens . Note the Consumer Key, Consumer Secret, Access Token and Access Token Secret information, since it is required during Twitter Connection in Informatica PowerCenter Express.

 

 

Open Authentication Configuration

A Twitter connection and a Twitter Streaming connection requires open authentication (OAuth). You configure OAuth in the OAuth Utility to send secure authorized requests to Twitter API.

1. Open OAuth utility by using the URL http://<hostname.domain.com>:<port>/ows

2. Select Twitter in the Application.

3. Fill in the Consumer Key and Consumer Secret and Authorize.

4. In the Next page, select the Authorize App.

Create Twitter Connection in Informatica Developer

In this blog, I  will create a Twitter connection to pull history data, similar steps can be followed to use Twitter Streaming Connection.

1. Go to Create New Connection and select the connection type as Social Media.

2. Enter Connection name and click next.

3. Enter the consumer key and consumer secret.

4. Select yes for Oauth Details and fill in the Access Token and Access Secret.

 

5. Click Test Connection to verify the connection to the Twitter web site and Finish.

* In the Next Blog, I have covered how to Create a Data Object,  Data Object Operation and Using this Twitter data in a Mapping.