You can create and manage connections with the Data Explorer and the FireDAC Connection Editor wizards. See Connection Definitions for more information on creating connections from code and creating persistent, private, or temporary connections.

OAuth

The component includes embedded OAuth credentials in order to connect to Twitter. You can connect without setting any connection properties for your user credentials. When you connect the component opens the OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application. The component then completes the OAuth process.

All tables require authentication. You must use OAuth to authenticate with Twitter. OAuth requires the authenticating user to interact with Twitter using the browser. For more information, refer to Using OAuth Authentication.

Using the FireDAC Connection Editor

Complete the following steps to use the FireDAC Connection Editor to assign a Twitter connection to a TFDConnection object:

1. Open a project and drop a TFDPhysCDataTwitterDriverLink from the Tool Palette onto the Form Designer.
2. Drop a TFDConnection object onto the Form Designer.
3. Double-click the TFDConnection and select CDataTwitter in the Driver Id menu.
4. Define the necessary connection properties.
5. To execute ad-hoc SQL statements based on this connection, enter SQL commands on the SQL Script tab.
6. In the Form Designer, select the TFDConnection object and set the Connected property to true.

Using the Data Explorer

Complete the following steps to use the Data Explorer to define persistent connections that can be shared across applications and projects:

1. Click View > Tool Windows > Data Explorer in RAD Studio and expand the FireDAC node.
2. Right-click the CData Twitter Data Source node and click Add New Connection.
3. Enter a name for the connection. The FireDAC Connection Editor opens.

Working with Persistent Connections

The connections you define in the Data Explorer can be assigned to a TFDConnection object by specifying the connection name in the TFDConnection object's ConnectionDefName property.

Browsing Data and Metadata

The Data Explorer also provides options for browsing Twitter objects at design time:

• Expand the CData Twitter Data Source node in the Data Explorer to view the defined connections.
• Expand a connection node to find the database objects available for a connection.
• Drill down to a database object to find metadata such as primary keys.
• To display data, double-click a table or view or right-click and click View.