Configure a Connection Profile

From the CData ribbon, click Get Data and select From LinkedIn connection/s to launch the CData Query window. To setup a new connection, you will have to click the New LinkedIn Connection button. Here you can set the connection settings, test the connection, and save the connection profile.

Connecting to LinkedIn

The LinkedIn CompanyId is a string of numbers, usually 6 to 9 digits long, that is unique to your company. Working with LinkedIn entities that require the CompanyId to be exposed, requires Company Page Administrator permissions.

There are two ways to find your site's LinkedIn Company ID:

• Look at the URL of the search results page when you search for your company name in your LinkedIn page's Company dropdown. The ID is the value in the URL after /search/?f_C=[numeric value]&.

• As a LinkedIn Page Admin, use the All Pages or Home tab to navigate to the page's Admin View. The ID is the numbers in the URL that come after https://www.linkedin.com/company/.

CompanyId is required in most of the LinkedIn data model entities. You can specify it directly as part of a query or -- if the query you are using is not easily modified -- you can set it globally.

If you are not sure if it is required for a query you want to run, check the table or view description, or see whether it is specified as a column or pseudo-column.

Authenticating to LinkedIn

LinkedIn provides embedded OAuth credentials that simplify connection from a Desktop application . To connect from a Web application, you must create a custom OAuth application, as described in Creating a Custom OAuth Application.

To connect via OAuth from all authentication flows, you must set AuthScheme to OAuth.

The following subsections describe how to authenticate to LinkedIn from the available OAuth flows. For information about how to create a custom OAuth application, and why you might want to create one even for auth flows that already have embedded OAuth credentials, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application.

For a complete list of connection string properties available in LinkedIn, see Connection.

Desktop Applications

CData provides an embedded OAuth application that simplifies authentication at the desktop. You can also authenticate from the desktop via a custom OAuth application, which you configure and register at the LinkedIn console. For further information, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application.

Before you connect, set these properties:

• InitiateOAuth: GETANDREFRESH. Used to automatically get and refresh the OAuthAccessToken.
• Custom OAuth applications only:
  • OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
  • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
  • CallbackURL: The redirect URI defined when you registered your custom OAuth application.

When you connect, the add-in opens LinkedIn's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application.

When the access token expires, the add-in refreshes it automatically.

Connection Properties

The Connection properties describe the various options that can be used to establish a connection.

Managing Connections

After successfully authenticating to LinkedIn you will be able to customize the data you are importing. To learn more about this, see Managing Connections.

See Also

• Querying Data: Use the data selection wizard to pull data into a spreadsheet. You can also configure scheduled data refresh here.
• Using the Excel Add-In: Find other ways to interact with LinkedIn data, such as using the available CData Excel Functions.