Create a Data Access Object for BigCommerce 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 BigCommerce integrates connectivity to live BigCommerce data in Java applications. By pairing these technologies, you gain simple, programmatic access to BigCommerce data. This article explains how to build a basic Data Access Object (DAO) and the accompanying code to read and write BigCommerce data.

Create a DAO for the BigCommerce Customers 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 MyCustomersDAO {
 //insert new data into BigCommerce
 @SqlUpdate("INSERT INTO Customers (FirstName, LastName) values (:firstName, :lastName)")
 void insert(@Bind("firstName") String firstName, @Bind("lastName") String lastName);

 //request specific data from BigCommerce (String type is used for simplicity)
 @SqlQuery("SELECT LastName FROM Customers WHERE FirstName = :firstName")
 String findLastNameByFirstName(@Bind("firstName") String firstName);

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

Open a Connection to BigCommerce

Collect the necessary connection properties and construct the appropriate JDBC URL for connecting to BigCommerce.

BigCommerce authentication is based on the standard OAuth flow. To authenticate, you must initially create an app via the Big Commerce developer platform where you can obtain an OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL. These three parameters will be set as connection properties to your driver.

Additionally, in order to connect to your BigCommerce Store, you will need your StoreId. To find your Store Id please follow these steps:

1. Log in to your BigCommerce account.
2. From the Home Page, select Advanced Settings > API Accounts.
3. Click Create API Account.
4. A text box named API Path will appear on your screen.
5. Inside you can see a URL of the following structure: https://api.bigcommerce.com/stores/{Store Id}/v3.
6. As demonstrated above, your Store Id will be between the 'stores/' and '/v3' path paramters.
7. Once you have retrieved your Store Id you can either click Cancel or proceed in creating an API Account in case you do not have one already.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

java -jar cdata.jdbc.bigcommerce.jar

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

A connection string for BigCommerce will typically look like the following:

jdbc:bigcommerce:OAuthClientId=YourClientId; OAuthClientSecret=YourClientSecret; StoreId='YourStoreID'; CallbackURL='http://localhost:33333';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:bigcommerce:OAuthClientId=YourClientId; OAuthClientSecret=YourClientSecret; StoreId='YourStoreID'; CallbackURL='http://localhost:33333';InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;");
MyCustomersDAO dao = dbi.open(MyCustomersDAO.class);

//do stuff with the DAO

dao.close();

Read BigCommerce Data

With the connection open to BigCommerce, simply call the previously defined method to retrieve data from the Customers entity in BigCommerce.

//disply the result of our 'find' method
String lastName = dao.findLastNameByFirstName("Bob");
System.out.println(lastName);

Write BigCommerce Data

It is also simple to write data to BigCommerce, using the previously defined method.

//add a new entry to the Customers entity
dao.insert(newFirstName, newLastName);

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