Create a Data Access Object for Act-On Data using JDBI

JDBI is a SQL convenience library for Java that exposes two different style APIs, a fluent style and a SQL object style. The CData JDBC Driver for Act-On integrates connectivity to live Act-On data in Java applications. By pairing these technologies, you gain simple, programmatic access to Act-On data. This article explains how to build a basic Data Access Object (DAO) and the accompanying code to read and write Act-On data.

Create a DAO for the Act-On Images Entity

The interface below declares the desired behavior for the SQL object to create a single method for each SQL statement to be implemented.

public interface MyImagesDAO {
 //insert new data into Act-On
 @SqlUpdate("INSERT INTO Images (FolderName, Name) values (:folderName, :name)")
 void insert(@Bind("folderName") String folderName, @Bind("name") String name);

 //request specific data from Act-On (String type is used for simplicity)
 @SqlQuery("SELECT Name FROM Images WHERE FolderName = :folderName")
 String findNameByFolderName(@Bind("folderName") String folderName);

 /*
 * close with no args is used to close the connection
 */
 void close();
}

Open a Connection to Act-On

Collect the necessary connection properties and construct the appropriate JDBC URL for connecting to Act-On.

ActOn uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, create an app to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties.

See the Getting Started guide in the CData driver documentation for more information.

Built-in Connection String Designer

For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Act-On JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

java -jar cdata.jdbc.acton.jar

Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

A connection string for Act-On will typically look like the following:

jdbc:acton:InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;

Use the configured JDBC URL to obtain an instance of the DAO interface. The particular method shown below will open a handle bound to the instance, so the instance needs to be closed explicitly to release the handle and the bound JDBC connection.

DBI dbi = new DBI("jdbc:acton:InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;");
MyImagesDAO dao = dbi.open(MyImagesDAO.class);

//do stuff with the DAO

dao.close();

Read Act-On Data

With the connection open to Act-On, simply call the previously defined method to retrieve data from the Images entity in Act-On.

//disply the result of our 'find' method
String name = dao.findNameByFolderName("New Folder");
System.out.println(name);

Write Act-On Data

It is also simple to write data to Act-On, using the previously defined method.

//add a new entry to the Images entity
dao.insert(newFolderName, newName);

Since the JDBI library is able to work with JDBC connections, you can easily produce a SQL Object API for Act-On by integrating with the CData JDBC Driver for Act-On. Download a free trial and work with live Act-On data in custom Java applications today.