DbVisualizer can connect to an arbitrary REST data source using the Progress DataDirect’s Autonomous REST Connector for JDBC. The connector offers a read-only connection to APIs that have JSON responses. 

DbVisualizer 13.0 and later

  1. Download the driver to a directory of your choice
  2. Start DbVisualizer
  3. Open Tools->Driver manager
  4. Create a new Custom driver form the Custom Template , see new Driver Manger for how to do this. Fill out the details:
    Name: (choose a name for the driver)
    URL format: jdbc:datadirect:autorest:sample=http://api.example.com/data;
    Jar file: autorest.jar (add or drop the autorest.jar you downloaded in 1.)
    Driver class: com.ddtek.jdbc.autorest.AutoRESTDriver
  5. Follow the same procedure as above  for older DbVisualizer to create the connection


In previous versions of DbVisualizer

  1. Download the driver and install it into the PREFSDIR/jdbc directory
    (PREFSDIR is the .dbvis directory normally located in your home directory)
  2. Start DbVisualizer
  3. Open Tools->Driver manager
  4. Open Driver->Create Driver and fill out the details:
    Name: (choose a name for the driver)
    URL format: jdbc:datadirect:autorest:sample=http://api.example.com/data;
    Jar file: autorest.jar
    Driver class: com.ddtek.jdbc.autorest.AutoRESTDriver
  5. Open Database->Create Database Connection:
    Choose an alias, select the driver you just created and enter the URL for the REST API on the following format:
    jdbc:datadirect:autorest:sample=(choose the URL)
    Example:
    jdbc:datadirect:autorest:sample=http://dummy.restapiexample.com/api/v1/employees;
  6. Press Connect to connect to the REST API
  7. In the Databases Tab, you should find your REST data under AUTOREST/TABLE (exact name will vary, reflecting the URL you used)


Several sites offer free REST API samples for experimental purposes. These are some of them:


There are also several sites offering a free REST API to real data, where GitHub is just one example.