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

Create a DAO for the Blackbaud FE NXT Accounts 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 MyAccountsDAO {
 //insert new data into Blackbaud FE NXT
 @SqlUpdate("INSERT INTO Accounts (ModifiedBy, AccountNumber) values (:modifiedBy, :accountNumber)")
 void insert(@Bind("modifiedBy") String modifiedBy, @Bind("accountNumber") String accountNumber);

 //request specific data from Blackbaud FE NXT (String type is used for simplicity)
 @SqlQuery("SELECT AccountNumber FROM Accounts WHERE ModifiedBy = :modifiedBy")
 String findAccountNumberByModifiedBy(@Bind("modifiedBy") String modifiedBy);

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

Open a Connection to Blackbaud FE NXT

Collect the necessary connection properties and construct the appropriate JDBC URL for connecting to Blackbaud FE NXT.

Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT 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 Blackbaud FE NXT JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

java -jar cdata.jdbc.financialedgenxt.jar

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

A connection string for Blackbaud FE NXT will typically look like the following:

jdbc:financialedgenxt:SubscriptionKey=MySubscriptionKey;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:financialedgenxt:SubscriptionKey=MySubscriptionKey;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;");
MyAccountsDAO dao = dbi.open(MyAccountsDAO.class);

//do stuff with the DAO

dao.close();

Read Blackbaud FE NXT Data

With the connection open to Blackbaud FE NXT, simply call the previously defined method to retrieve data from the Accounts entity in Blackbaud FE NXT.

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

Write Blackbaud FE NXT Data

It is also simple to write data to Blackbaud FE NXT, using the previously defined method.

//add a new entry to the Accounts entity
dao.insert(newModifiedBy, newAccountNumber);

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