Import Real-Time Airtable Data via ODBC in ColdFusion to Build Applications

Dibyendu Datta
Lead Technology Evangelist

Use CData ODBC drivers to import and use Airtable data in ColdFusion.

Adobe ColdFusion is a web and mobile application development platform. It uses its own scripting language, ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML), to create data-driven websites as well as generate remote services, such as REST. When ColdFusion is paired with the CData ODBC Driver for Airtable, you can link your ColdFusion web and mobile applications to operational Airtable data. This allows for your applications to be more robust and complete. This article details how to use the ODBC driver to create a table populated with Airtable data from within a ColdFusion markup file.

To follow along with this tutorial, you need to install the CData ODBC Driver for Airtable and Adobe ColdFusion.

Configuring the Connection

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (Data Source Name). This is the last step of the driver installation process. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

APIKey, BaseId and TableNames parameters are required to connect to Airtable. ViewNames is an optional parameter where views of the tables may be specified.

APIKey : API Key of your account. To obtain this value, after logging in go to Account. In API section click Generate API key.
BaseId : Id of your base. To obtain this value, it is in the same section as the APIKey. Click on Airtable API, or navigate to https://airtable.com/api and select a base. In the introduction section you can find "The ID of this base is appxxN2ftedc0nEG7."
TableNames : A comma separated list of table names for the selected base. These are the same names of tables as found in the UI.
ViewNames : A comma separated list of views in the format of (table.view) names. These are the same names of the views as found in the UI.

Adding a Data Source and Creating a Table

After creating a DSN, follow the steps below to add a new data source, test our connection to it, create a ColdFusion markup file, and, finally, import Airtable Data and display it in a table in ColdFusion:

From the ColdFusion administrator interface, choose Data & Services. 👁 Selecting Data & Services
Here, click "Add New Data Source". The data source name can be any name, provided it conforms to the ColdFusion variable naming conventions. For our ODBC driver, choose "ODBC Socket", then click the "Add" button. 👁 Adding Data Source Name
From the ODBC DSN Dropdown menu select CData Airtable Sys. Under the Advanced Settings section, leave the Connection String blank. Note that any properties specified in this input field will override the ones specified in the DSN Configuration. 👁 Populating driver properties
Now, test the connection by pressing the check mark to the left of the CDataAirtableODBC data source you just created. When the data source reports an "OK" status, it is ready for use. 👁 Testing the connection

Next, create a new ColdFusion Markup file (.cfm) and place it in the wwwroot directory ("C:\ColdFusion2021\cfusion\wwwroot") for ColdFusion.

The following code queries the data source:

 
 <cfquery name="AirtableQuery" dataSource="CDataAirtableODBC"> 
 SELECT * FROM SampleTable_1 
 </cfquery>

And a CFTable can be used to quickly output the table in HTML:

 
 <cftable 
 query = "AirtableQuery" 
 border = "1" 
 colHeaders 
 colSpacing = "2" 
 headerLines = "2" 
 HTMLTable 
 maxRows = "500" 
 startRow = "1"> 

 <cfcol header="<b>Id</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="Id"/> 

 <cfcol header="<b>Column1</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="Column1"/> 

 ...

 </cftable>

Full code, including the HTML portion is available below:

 
 <html> 
 <head><title>CData Software | Airtable SampleTable_1 Table Demo </title></head> 
 <body> 
 <cfoutput>#ucase("Airtable SampleTable_1 Table Demo")#</cfoutput> 
 <cfquery name="AirtableQuery" dataSource="CDataAirtableODBC"> 

 SELECT * FROM SampleTable_1 

 </cfquery> 
 <cftable 
 query = "AirtableQuery" 
 border = "1" 
 colHeaders 
 colSpacing = "2" 
 headerLines = "2" 
 HTMLTable 
 maxRows = "500" 
 startRow = "1"> 
 <cfcol header="<b>Id</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="Id"/> 

 <cfcol header="<b>Column1</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="Column1"/> 

 ...

 </cftable> 
 </body> 

 </html>

Finally, run the code in a browser. It produces a table populated with Airtable data! 👁 Running the code

As a note, the CData ODBC Drivers also support parameterized queries using the cfqueryparam element. For example:

SELECT * FROM Account WHERE name =

Get Started Today

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData ODBC Driver for Airtable and start building Airtable-connected applications with Adobe ColdFusion. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.

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Download a free trial of the Airtable ODBC Driver to get started:

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Learn more:

👁 Airtable Icon
Airtable ODBC Driver

The Airtable ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from Airtable, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Airtable data like you would a database - read, write, and update Airtable Tables, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/airtable-odbc-coldfusion.rst