Create a connection to LinkedIn by navigating to the Connections page in the Sync App application and selecting the corresponding icon in the Add Connections panel. If the LinkedIn icon is not available, click the Add More icon to download and install the LinkedIn connector from the CData site.

Required properties are listed under the Settings tab. The Advanced tab lists connection properties that are not typically required.

Connecting to LinkedIn

The LinkedIn CompanyId is a string of numbers, usually 6 to 9 digits long, that is unique to your company. You can find this ID in the URL of the search results page when you click on See All Jobs on your LinkedIn Page. The CompanyId is often required in queries for company data. While this may be set directly in the criteria of a query, the CompanyId may be set globally to avoid issues where the query is not so easily modified.

Authenticating to LinkedIn

OAuth

Web Applications

When connecting via a Web application, you need to register a custom OAuth application with LinkedIn. You can then use the Sync App to get and manage the OAuth token values. See Creating a Custom OAuth App for more information.

Get an OAuth Access Token

Set the following connection properties to obtain the OAuthAccessToken:

• OAuthClientId: Set this to the client Id in your application settings.
• OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client secret in your application settings.

Then call stored procedures to complete the OAuth exchange:

1. Call the GetOAuthAuthorizationURL stored procedure. Set the AuthMode input to WEB and the CallbackURL to the Redirect URI you specified in your application settings. The stored procedure returns the URL to the OAuth endpoint.
2. Navigate to the URL that the stored procedure returned in Step 1. Log in and authorize the web application. You are redirected back to the callback URL.
3. Call the GetOAuthAccessToken stored procedure. Set the AuthMode input to WEB. Set the Verifier input to the "code" parameter in the query string of the callback URL.

This section details a selection of advanced features of the LinkedIn Sync App.

User Defined Views

The Sync App allows you to define virtual tables, called user defined views, whose contents are decided by a pre-configured query. These views are useful when you cannot directly control queries being issued to the drivers. See User Defined Views for an overview of creating and configuring custom views.

SSL Configuration

Use SSL Configuration to adjust how Sync App handles TLS/SSL certificate negotiations. You can choose from various certificate formats; see the SSLServerCert property under "Connection String Options" for more information.

Firewall and Proxy

Configure the Sync App for compliance with Firewall and Proxy, including Windows proxies and HTTP proxies. You can also set up tunnel connections.

Query Processing

The Sync App offloads as much of the SELECT statement processing as possible to LinkedIn and then processes the rest of the query in memory (client-side).

See Query Processing for more information.

Logging

See Logging for an overview of configuration settings that can be used to refine CData logging. For basic logging, you only need to set two connection properties, but there are numerous features that support more refined logging, where you can select subsets of information to be logged using the LogModules connection property.

Customizing the SSL Configuration

By default, the Sync App attempts to negotiate SSL/TLS by checking the server's certificate against the system's trusted certificate store.

To specify another certificate, see the SSLServerCert property for the available formats to do so.

Connecting Through a Firewall or Proxy

HTTP Proxies

To connect through the Windows system proxy, you do not need to set any additional connection properties. To connect to other proxies, set ProxyAutoDetect to false.

In addition, to authenticate to an HTTP proxy, set ProxyAuthScheme, ProxyUser, and ProxyPassword, in addition to ProxyServer and ProxyPort.

Other Proxies

Set the following properties:

• To use a proxy-based firewall, set FirewallType, FirewallServer, and FirewallPort.
• To tunnel the connection, set FirewallType to TUNNEL.
• To authenticate, specify FirewallUser and FirewallPassword.
• To authenticate to a SOCKS proxy, additionally set FirewallType to SOCKS5.

The CData Sync App models entities in the LinkedIn API as tables, views, and stored procedures. These are defined in schema files, which are simple, text-based configuration files. API limitations and requirements are documented in this section; you can use the SupportEnhancedSQL feature, set by default, to circumvent most of these limitations.

Views

Views are tables that cannot be modified. Typically, read-only data are shown as views.

Stored Procedures

Stored Procedures are function-like interfaces to the data source. They can be used to search, update, and modify information in the data source.

Views are composed of columns and pseudo columns. Views are similar to tables in the way that data is represented; however, views do not support updates. Entities that are represented as views are typically read-only entities. Often, a stored procedure is available to update the data if such functionality is applicable to the data source.

Queries can be executed against a view as if it were a normal table, and the data that comes back is similar in that regard.

Dynamic views, such as queries exposed as views, and views for looking up specific combinations of project_team work items are supported.

LinkedIn Connector for CData Sync Views

Query comments for a specific company update.

Select

The Comments view supports the UpdateId and CompanyId columns in the WHERE clause. The supported operator for these columns is =. For example:

SELECT * FROM Comments WHERE Id='183432' AND UpdateId='UPDATE-12315-1352-112515'
SELECT * FROM Comments WHERE UpdateId='UPDATE-12315-1352-112515'

Make sure that, when selecting a specific update, comments are enabled on it.

Columns

Retrieve company profiles and updates.

Select

The CompanyDetails view supports only the CompanyId column in the WHERE clause. The only supported operator for the CompanyId column is =. For example:

SELECT * FROM CompanyDetails
SELECT * FROM CompanyDetails WHERE CompanyId='183432'

Columns

Query statistics about followers for a particular company page.

Select

The CompanyFollowerStatistics view supports only the CompanyId column in the WHERE clause. The supported operator for the CompanyId column is =. For example:

SELECT * FROM CompanyFollowerStatistics WHERE CompanyId='183432'

Columns

Lists all companies and the privileges that the user has within the organization.

Select

The CompanyList view returns a list of all companies that the member is an administrator of. For example:

SELECT * FROM CompanyList

Columns

Retrieve company locations information.

Select

The CompanyLocations view supports only the CompanyId column in the WHERE clause. The only supported operator for the CompanyId column is =. For example:

SELECT * FROM CompanyLocations
SELECT * FROM CompanyLocations WHERE CompanyId='183432'

Columns

Query statistics about page views for a particular company page.

Select

The Sync App will use the LinkedIn API to process WHERE clause conditions built with the following column and operator. The rest of the filter is executed client side within the Sync App.

• CompanyId supports only the '=' operator.
• TimeGranularity supports only the '=' operator.
• ReportTimeRangeStart supports only the '=' operator.
• ReportTimeRangeEnd supports only the '=' operator.

The CompanyPageStatistics view allows you to retrieve both lifetime and time-bound statistics on views and clicks for an organization page.

• Lifetime page statistics: To retrieve lifetime page statistics, do not set the ReportTimeRangeStart and ReportTimeRangeEnd in the WHERE clause conditions. The API returns view and click statistics segmented by various facets. For example:
  

  SELECT * FROM [CompanyPageStatistics]

• Time-bound page statistics: To retrieve time-bound page statistics, include the ReportTimeRangeStart and/or ReportTimeRangeEnd in the WHERE clause conditions. The API returns aggregate page statistics within all of the days or months in between the selected date range based on the specified TimeGranularity (DAY or MONTH). For example:
  

  SELECT * FROM [CompanyPageStatistics] WHERE ReportTimeRangeStart = '2019-10-20' AND ReportTimeRangeEnd = '2020-10-15'
  
  SELECT * FROM [CompanyPageStatistics] WHERE ReportTimeRangeStart = '2019-10-15' AND TimeGranularity = 'DAY'
  
  SELECT * FROM [CompanyPageStatistics] WHERE TimeGranularity = 'MONTH' AND ReportTimeRangeStart = '2019-10-15' AND ReportTimeRangeEnd = '2020-10-15' AND companyId = '10904095'

Columns

Lists update events from the LinkedIn company page.

Select

The CompanyStatusUpdates table supports only the CompanyId column in the WHERE clause. The supported operator for the CompanyId column is =. For example:

SELECT * FROM CompanyStatusUpdates WHERE CompanyId='183432'

Columns

Query update statistics about a company. If the TimeRange filters are not specified, the default result set is for the last 12 months.

Select

The Sync App will use the LinkedIn API to process WHERE clause conditions built with the following column and operator. The rest of the filter is executed client side within the Sync App.

• CompanyId supports the '=' comparisons.
• UGCPostId supports the '=,IN' comparisons.

For example, the following queries are processed server side:

SELECT * FROM CompanyUpdateStatistics WHERE CompanyId='183432'
SELECT * FROM CompanyUpdateStatistics WHERE UGCPostId='urn:li:ugcPost:1234'
SELECT * FROM CompanyUpdateStatistics WHERE UGCPostId IN ('urn:li:ugcPost:1234','urn:li:ugcPost:2345')

Columns

The Organization Follower Count View provides the ability to retrieve the number of first-degree connections (followers) for the organization defined in the CompanyId connection string property.

Columns

Query the member's current positions.

Select

The Positions view retrieves all current positions for the logged in member. For example:

SELECT * FROM Positions

Columns

Lists the details of your profile.

Select

The Profile view supports only the Id column in the WHERE clause. The only supported operator for the Id column is =. For example:

SELECT * FROM Profile
SELECT * FROM Profile WHERE Id='urn:li:person:e5eA-E_7Kb'

Columns

The connection string properties are the various options that can be used to establish a connection. This section provides a complete list of the options you can configure in the connection string for this provider. Click the links for further details.

Authentication

Connection

OAuth

SSL

Firewall

Proxy

Logging

Schema

Miscellaneous

This section provides a complete list of the Authentication properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

The company Id of the currently logged on user. If specifying the Company Id in the query, use the format urn:li:organization:{thecompanyid}.

Remarks

This property must be set in the connection string or query. Otherwise, the Sync App will use the first found company Id.

This section provides a complete list of the Connection properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

The version of the LinkedIn Marketing API to be used.

Remarks

The API version used by default is 202210. To use a different API version set this to the format YYYYMM.

This section provides a complete list of the OAuth properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

The client Id assigned when you register your application with an OAuth authorization server.

Remarks

As part of registering an OAuth application, you will receive the OAuthClientId value, sometimes also called a consumer key, and a client secret, the OAuthClientSecret.

The client secret assigned when you register your application with an OAuth authorization server.

Remarks

As part of registering an OAuth application, you will receive the OAuthClientId, also called a consumer key. You will also receive a client secret, also called a consumer secret. Set the client secret in the OAuthClientSecret property.

A specific scope that the user requires the access token.

Remarks

This property must be set in the connection string to get a scoped token with specific privileges.

This section provides a complete list of the SSL properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

The certificate to be accepted from the server when connecting using TLS/SSL.

Remarks

If using a TLS/SSL connection, this property can be used to specify the TLS/SSL certificate to be accepted from the server. Any other certificate that is not trusted by the machine is rejected.

This property can take the following forms:

If not specified, any certificate trusted by the machine is accepted.

Use '*' to signify to accept all certificates. Note that this is not recommended due to security concerns.

This section provides a complete list of the Firewall properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

The protocol used by a proxy-based firewall.

Remarks

This property specifies the protocol that the Sync App will use to tunnel traffic through the FirewallServer proxy. Note that by default, the Sync App connects to the system proxy; to disable this behavior and connect to one of the following proxy types, set ProxyAutoDetect to false.

To connect to HTTP proxies, use ProxyServer and ProxyPort. To authenticate to HTTP proxies, use ProxyAuthScheme, ProxyUser, and ProxyPassword.

The name or IP address of a proxy-based firewall.

Remarks

This property specifies the IP address, DNS name, or host name of a proxy allowing traversal of a firewall. The protocol is specified by FirewallType: Use FirewallServer with this property to connect through SOCKS or do tunneling. Use ProxyServer to connect to an HTTP proxy.

Note that the Sync App uses the system proxy by default. To use a different proxy, set ProxyAutoDetect to false.

The TCP port for a proxy-based firewall.

Remarks

This specifies the TCP port for a proxy allowing traversal of a firewall. Use FirewallServer to specify the name or IP address. Specify the protocol with FirewallType.

The user name to use to authenticate with a proxy-based firewall.

Remarks

The FirewallUser and FirewallPassword properties are used to authenticate against the proxy specified in FirewallServer and FirewallPort, following the authentication method specified in FirewallType.

A password used to authenticate to a proxy-based firewall.

Remarks

This property is passed to the proxy specified by FirewallServer and FirewallPort, following the authentication method specified by FirewallType.

This section provides a complete list of the Proxy properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

This indicates whether to use the system proxy settings or not. This takes precedence over other proxy settings, so you'll need to set ProxyAutoDetect to FALSE in order use custom proxy settings.

Remarks

This takes precedence over other proxy settings, so you'll need to set ProxyAutoDetect to FALSE in order use custom proxy settings.

To connect to an HTTP proxy, see ProxyServer. For other proxies, such as SOCKS or tunneling, see FirewallType.

The hostname or IP address of a proxy to route HTTP traffic through.

Remarks

The hostname or IP address of a proxy to route HTTP traffic through. The Sync App can use the HTTP, Windows (NTLM), or Kerberos authentication types to authenticate to an HTTP proxy.

If you need to connect through a SOCKS proxy or tunnel the connection, see FirewallType.

By default, the Sync App uses the system proxy. If you need to use another proxy, set ProxyAutoDetect to false.

The TCP port the ProxyServer proxy is running on.

Remarks

The port the HTTP proxy is running on that you want to redirect HTTP traffic through. Specify the HTTP proxy in ProxyServer. For other proxy types, see FirewallType.

The authentication type to use to authenticate to the ProxyServer proxy.

Remarks

This value specifies the authentication type to use to authenticate to the HTTP proxy specified by ProxyServer and ProxyPort.

Note that the Sync App will use the system proxy settings by default, without further configuration needed; if you want to connect to another proxy, you will need to set ProxyAutoDetect to false, in addition to ProxyServer and ProxyPort. To authenticate, set ProxyAuthScheme and set ProxyUser and ProxyPassword, if needed.

The authentication type can be one of the following:

• BASIC: The Sync App performs HTTP BASIC authentication.
• DIGEST: The Sync App performs HTTP DIGEST authentication.
• NEGOTIATE: The Sync App retrieves an NTLM or Kerberos token based on the applicable protocol for authentication.
• PROPRIETARY: The Sync App does not generate an NTLM or Kerberos token. You must supply this token in the Authorization header of the HTTP request.

If you need to use another authentication type, such as SOCKS 5 authentication, see FirewallType.

A user name to be used to authenticate to the ProxyServer proxy.

Remarks

The ProxyUser and ProxyPassword options are used to connect and authenticate against the HTTP proxy specified in ProxyServer.

You can select one of the available authentication types in ProxyAuthScheme. If you are using HTTP authentication, set this to the user name of a user recognized by the HTTP proxy. If you are using Windows or Kerberos authentication, set this property to a user name in one of the following formats:

user@domain
domain\user

A password to be used to authenticate to the ProxyServer proxy.

Remarks

This property is used to authenticate to an HTTP proxy server that supports NTLM (Windows), Kerberos, or HTTP authentication. To specify the HTTP proxy, you can set ProxyServer and ProxyPort. To specify the authentication type, set ProxyAuthScheme.

If you are using HTTP authentication, additionally set ProxyUser and ProxyPassword to HTTP proxy.

If you are using NTLM authentication, set ProxyUser and ProxyPassword to your Windows password. You may also need these to complete Kerberos authentication.

For SOCKS 5 authentication or tunneling, see FirewallType.

By default, the Sync App uses the system proxy. If you want to connect to another proxy, set ProxyAutoDetect to false.

The SSL type to use when connecting to the ProxyServer proxy.

Remarks

This property determines when to use SSL for the connection to an HTTP proxy specified by ProxyServer. This value can be AUTO, ALWAYS, NEVER, or TUNNEL. The applicable values are the following:

A semicolon separated list of destination hostnames or IPs that are exempt from connecting through the ProxyServer .

Remarks

The ProxyServer is used for all addresses, except for addresses defined in this property. Use semicolons to separate entries.

Note that the Sync App uses the system proxy settings by default, without further configuration needed; if you want to explicitly configure proxy exceptions for this connection, you need to set ProxyAutoDetect = false, and configure ProxyServer and ProxyPort. To authenticate, set ProxyAuthScheme and set ProxyUser and ProxyPassword, if needed.

This section provides a complete list of the Logging properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

Core modules to be included in the log file.

Remarks

Only the modules specified (separated by ';') will be included in the log file. By default all modules are included.

See the Logging page for an overview.

This section provides a complete list of the Schema properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

A path to the directory that contains the schema files defining tables, views, and stored procedures.

Remarks

The path to a directory which contains the schema files for the Sync App (.rsd files for tables and views, .rsb files for stored procedures). The folder location can be a relative path from the location of the executable. The Location property is only needed if you want to customize definitions (for example, change a column name, ignore a column, and so on) or extend the data model with new tables, views, or stored procedures.

If left unspecified, the default location is "%APPDATA%\\CData\\LinkedIn Data Provider\\Schema" with %APPDATA% being set to the user's configuration directory:

This property restricts the schemas reported to a subset of the available schemas. For example, BrowsableSchemas=SchemaA,SchemaB,SchemaC.

Remarks

Listing the schemas from databases can be expensive. Providing a list of schemas in the connection string improves the performance.

This property restricts the tables reported to a subset of the available tables. For example, Tables=TableA,TableB,TableC.

Remarks

Listing the tables from some databases can be expensive. Providing a list of tables in the connection string improves the performance of the Sync App.

This property can also be used as an alternative to automatically listing views if you already know which ones you want to work with and there would otherwise be too many to work with.

Specify the tables you want in a comma-separated list. Each table should be a valid SQL identifier with any special characters escaped using square brackets, double-quotes or backticks. For example, Tables=TableA,[TableB/WithSlash],WithCatalog.WithSchema.`TableC With Space`.

Note that when connecting to a data source with multiple schemas or catalogs, you will need to provide the fully qualified name of the table in this property, as in the last example here, to avoid ambiguity between tables that exist in multiple catalogs or schemas.

Restricts the views reported to a subset of the available tables. For example, Views=ViewA,ViewB,ViewC.

Remarks

Listing the views from some databases can be expensive. Providing a list of views in the connection string improves the performance of the Sync App.

This property can also be used as an alternative to automatically listing views if you already know which ones you want to work with and there would otherwise be too many to work with.

Specify the views you want in a comma-separated list. Each view should be a valid SQL identifier with any special characters escaped using square brackets, double-quotes or backticks. For example, Views=ViewA,[ViewB/WithSlash],WithCatalog.WithSchema.`ViewC With Space`.

Note that when connecting to a data source with multiple schemas or catalogs, you will need to provide the fully qualified name of the table in this property, as in the last example here, to avoid ambiguity between tables that exist in multiple catalogs or schemas.

This section provides a complete list of the Miscellaneous properties you can configure in the connection string for this provider.

Limits the number of rows returned rows when no aggregation or group by is used in the query. This helps avoid performance issues at design time.

Remarks

Limits the number of rows returned rows when no aggregation or group by is used in the query. This helps avoid performance issues at design time.

These hidden properties are used only in specific use cases.

Remarks

The properties listed below are available for specific use cases. Normal driver use cases and functionality should not require these properties.

Specify multiple properties in a semicolon-separated list.

Integration and Formatting

The maximum number of results to return per page from LinkedIn.

Remarks

The Pagesize property affects the maximum number of results to return per page from LinkedIn. Setting a higher value may result in better performance at the cost of additional memory allocated per page consumed.

This property indicates whether or not to include pseudo columns as columns to the table.

Remarks

This setting is particularly helpful in Entity Framework, which does not allow you to set a value for a pseudo column unless it is a table column. The value of this connection setting is of the format "Table1=Column1, Table1=Column2, Table2=Column3". You can use the "*" character to include all tables and all columns; for example, "*=*".

The value in seconds until the timeout error is thrown, canceling the operation.

Remarks

If Timeout = 0, operations do not time out. The operations run until they complete successfully or until they encounter an error condition.

If Timeout expires and the operation is not yet complete, the Sync App throws an exception.

A filepath pointing to the JSON configuration file containing your custom views.

Remarks

User Defined Views are defined in a JSON-formatted configuration file called UserDefinedViews.json. The Sync App automatically detects the views specified in this file.

You can also have multiple view definitions and control them using the UserDefinedViews connection property. When you use this property, only the specified views are seen by the Sync App.

This User Defined View configuration file is formatted as follows:

• Each root element defines the name of a view.
• Each root element contains a child element, called query, which contains the custom SQL query for the view.

For example:

{
	"MyView": {
		"query": "SELECT * FROM CompanyStatusUpdates WHERE MyColumn = 'value'"
	},
	"MyView2": {
		"query": "SELECT * FROM MyTable WHERE Id IN (1,2,3)"
	}
}

"UserDefinedViews", "C:\\Users\\yourusername\\Desktop\\tmp\\UserDefinedViews.json"