Creating a Microsoft Access database connection to a REST-based API

Question

I am trying to, in Microsoft Access 2013, create a real-time link to data provided by a REST-based API (this API, to be specific). The ultimate goal is for the data to be available in a query as if it were a local database.

How can this be accomplished? Specifically, I am struggling with how to have Access call the API upon request. The only way I can think to achieve a similar result is to write a script that pulls the entire database via the API and translates it to an Access-readable format, then run that script at set intervals. But I'd really like to find a solution that works in real time, even if it's a skosh slower than locally caching the database.

Answer 1

Since a call to a RESTful Web Service is really just a specific kind of HTTP request you could, at the very least, use the Microsoft XML library to shoot an HTTP request to the web service and parse whatever it returns. For example, when I run the following VBA code

' VBA project Reference required:
' Microsoft XML, v3.0

Dim httpReq As New MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP
httpReq.Open "GET", "http://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/KOSTE-ARIN", False
httpReq.send
Dim response As String
response = httpReq.responseText
Debug.Print response

the string variable response contains the XML response to my request. It looks like this (after reformatting for readability):

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<?xml-stylesheet type='text/xsl' href='http://whois.arin.net/xsl/website.xsl' ?>
<poc xmlns="http://www.arin.net/whoisrws/core/v1" xmlns:ns2="http://www.arin.net/whoisrws/rdns/v1"
xmlns:ns3="http://www.arin.net/whoisrws/netref/v2" termsOfUse="https://www.arin.net/whois_tou.html"
inaccuracyReportUrl="http://www.arin.net/public/whoisinaccuracy/index.xhtml">
  <registrationDate>2009-10-02T11:54:45-04:00</registrationDate>
  <ref>http://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/KOSTE-ARIN</ref>
  <city>Chantilly</city>
  <companyName>ARIN</companyName>
  <iso3166-1>
    <code2>US</code2>
    <code3>USA</code3>
    <name>UNITED STATES</name>
    <e164>1</e164>
  </iso3166-1>
  <firstName>Mark</firstName>
  <handle>KOSTE-ARIN</handle>
  <lastName>Kosters</lastName>
  <emails>
    <email>[email protected]</email>
    <email>[email protected]</email>
  </emails>
  <resources termsOfUse="https://www.arin.net/whois_tou.html"
  inaccuracyReportUrl="http://www.arin.net/public/whoisinaccuracy/index.xhtml">
    <limitExceeded limit="256">false</limitExceeded>
  </resources>
  <phones>
    <phone>
      <number>+ 1-703-227-9870</number>
      <type>
        <description>Office</description>
        <code>O</code>
      </type>
    </phone>
  </phones>
  <postalCode>20151</postalCode>
  <comment>
    <line number="0">I&#39;m really MAK21-ARIN</line>
  </comment>
  <iso3166-2>VA</iso3166-2>
  <streetAddress>
    <line number="0">3635 Concorde Parkway</line>
  </streetAddress>
  <updateDate>2015-05-26T11:36:55-04:00</updateDate>
</poc>

What gets returned by your web service might look somewhat different. Or, as in the case of the ARIN whois RWS above, you may have several data formats from which to choose; XML was just the default. I could have requested a plain text response using

httpReq.Open "GET", "http://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/KOSTE-ARIN.txt", False

in which case response would contain

#
# ARIN WHOIS data and services are subject to the Terms of Use
# available at: https://www.arin.net/whois_tou.html
#


Name:           Kosters, Mark 
Handle:         KOSTE-ARIN
Company:        ARIN
Address:        3635 Concorde Parkway
City:           Chantilly
StateProv:      VA
PostalCode:     20151
Country:        US
RegDate:        2009-10-02
Updated:        2015-05-26
Comment:        I'm really MAK21-ARIN
Phone:          +1-703-227-9870 (Office)
Email:          [email protected]
Email:          [email protected]
Ref:            http://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/KOSTE-ARIN
#
# ARIN WHOIS data and services are subject to the Terms of Use
# available at: https://www.arin.net/whois_tou.html
#