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How to Connect to Kintone Data in Using Python: 6 Steps
Create Python applications on Linux/UNIX machines with connectivity to Kintone data. Leverage the pyodbc module for ODBC in Python.
The rich ecosystem of Python modules lets you get to work quicker and integrate your systems more effectively. With the CData Linux/UNIX ODBC Driver for Kintone and the pyodbc module, you can easily build Kintone-connected Python applications. This article shows how to use the pyodbc built-in functions to connect to Kintone data, execute queries, and output the results.
How to Use the CData ODBC Drivers on UNIX/Linux
The CData ODBC Drivers are supported in various Red Hat-based and Debian-based systems, including Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL, CentOS, and Fedora. There are also several libraries and packages that are required, many of which may be installed by default, depending on your system. For more information on the supported versions of Linux operating systems and the required libraries, please refer to the "Getting Started" section in the help documentation (installed and found online).
1. Install the Driver Manager
Before installing the driver, check that your system has a driver manager. For this article, you will use unixODBC, a free and open source ODBC driver manager that is widely supported.
For Debian-based systems like Ubuntu, you can install unixODBC with the APT package manager:
$ sudo apt-get install unixodbc unixodbc-dev
For systems based on Red Hat Linux, you can install unixODBC with yum or dnf:
$ sudo yum install unixODBC unixODBC-devel
The unixODBC driver manager reads information about drivers from an odbcinst.ini file and about data sources from an odbc.ini file. You can determine the location of the configuration files on your system by entering the following command into a terminal:
$ odbcinst -j
The output of the command will display the locations of the configuration files for ODBC data sources and registered ODBC drivers. User data sources can only be accessed by the user account whose home folder the odbc.ini is located in. System data sources can be accessed by all users. Below is an example of the output of this command:
DRIVERS............: /etc/odbcinst.ini
SYSTEM DATA SOURCES: /etc/odbc.ini
FILE DATA SOURCES..: /etc/ODBCDataSources
USER DATA SOURCES..: /home/myuser/.odbc.ini
SQLULEN Size.......: 8
SQLLEN Size........: 8
SQLSETPOSIROW Size.: 8
2. Install the Driver
You can download the driver in standard package formats: the Debian .deb package format or the .rpm file format. Once you have downloaded the file, you can install the driver from the terminal.
The driver installer registers the driver with unixODBC and creates a system DSN, which can be used later in any tools or applications that support ODBC connectivity.
For Debian-based systems like Ubuntu, run the following command with sudo or as root:
$ dpkg -i /path/to/package.deb
For Red Hat systems and other systems that support .rpms, run the following command with sudo or as root:
$ rpm -i /path/to/package.rpm
Once the driver is installed, you can list the registered drivers and defined data sources using the unixODBC driver manager:
List the Registered Driver(s)
$ odbcinst -q -d
CData ODBC Driver for Kintone
...
List the Defined Data Source(s)
$ odbcinst -q -s
CData Kintone Source
...
To use the CData ODBC Driver for Kintone with unixODBC, ensure that the driver is configured to use UTF-16. To do so, edit the INI file for the driver (cdata.odbc.kintone.ini), which can be found in the lib folder in the installation location (typically /opt/cdata/cdata-odbc-driver-for-kintone), as follows:
cdata.odbc.kintone.ini
...
[Driver]
DriverManagerEncoding = UTF-16
3. Modify the DSN
The driver installation predefines a system DSN. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties. Additionally, you can create user-specific DSNs that will not require root access to modify in $HOME/.odbc.ini.
In addition to the authentication values, set the following parameters to connect to and retrieve data from Kintone:
- Url: The URL of your account.
- GuestSpaceId: Optional. Set this when using a guest space.
Authenticating with Kintone
Kintone supports the following authentication methods.
Using Password Authentication
You must set the following to authenticate:
- User: The username of your account.
- Password: The password of your account.
Using Basic Authentication
If the basic authentication security feature is set on the domain, supply the additional login credentials with BasicAuthUser and BasicAuthPassword. Basic authentication requires these credentials in addition to User and Password.
Using Client SSL
Instead of basic authentication, you can specify a client certificate to authenticate. Set SSLClientCert, SSLClientCertType, SSLClientCertSubject, and SSLClientCertPassword. Additionally, set User and Password to your login credentials.
/etc/odbc.ini or $HOME/.odbc.ini
[CData Kintone Source]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Kintone
Description = My Description
User = myuseraccount
Password = mypassword
Url = http://subdomain.domain.com
GuestSpaceId = myspaceid
For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).
You can follow the procedure below to install pyodbc and start accessing Kintone through Python objects.
4. Install pyodbc
You can use the pip utility to install the module:
pip install pyodbc
Be sure to import with the module with the following:
import pyodbc
5. Connect to Kintone Data
You can now connect with an ODBC connection string or a DSN. Below is the syntax for a connection string:
cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DRIVER={CData ODBC Driver for Kintone};User=myuseraccount;Password=mypassword;Url=http://subdomain.domain.com;GuestSpaceId=myspaceid')
Below is the syntax for a DSN:
cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DSN=CData Kintone Sys;')
6. Execute SQL on Kintone
Instantiate a Cursor and use the execute method of the Cursor class to execute any SQL statement.
cursor = cnxn.cursor()
Select
You can use fetchall, fetchone, and fetchmany to retrieve Rows returned from SELECT statements:
import pyodbc
cursor = cnxn.cursor()
cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DSN=CData Kintone Source;User=MyUser;Password=MyPassword')
cursor.execute("SELECT CreatorName, Text FROM Comments WHERE AppId = '1354841'")
rows = cursor.fetchall()
for row in rows:
print(row.CreatorName, row.Text)
You can provide parameterized queries in a sequence or in the argument list:
cursor.execute(
"SELECT CreatorName, Text
FROM Comments
WHERE AppId = ?", '1354841',1)
Insert
INSERT commands also use the execute method; however, you must subsequently call the commit method after an insert or you will lose your changes:
cursor.execute("INSERT INTO Comments (AppId) VALUES ('1354841')")
cnxn.commit()
Update and Delete
As with an insert, you must also call commit after calling execute for an update or delete:
cursor.execute("UPDATE Comments SET AppId = '1354841'")
cnxn.commit()
Metadata Discovery
You can use the getinfo method to retrieve data such as information about the data source and the capabilities of the driver. The getinfo method passes through input to the ODBC SQLGetInfo method.
cnxn.getinfo(pyodbc.SQL_DATA_SOURCE_NAME)
You are now ready to build Python apps in Linux/UNIX environments with connectivity to Kintone data, using the CData ODBC Driver for Kintone.
Ready to get started?
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Kintone ODBC Driver
The Kintone ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live Kintone applications, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.
Access Kintone applications and databases from virtually anywhere through a standard ODBC Driver interface.
