Connect to Bullhorn CRM Data in Ruby

The CData ODBC Driver for Bullhorn CRM makes it easy to integrate connectivity to live Bullhorn CRM data in Ruby. This article shows how to create a simple Ruby app that connects to Bullhorn CRM data, executes a query, and displays the results.

Create an ODBC Connection to Bullhorn CRM Data

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. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Begin by providing your Bullhorn CRM account credentials in the following:

• DataCenterCode: Set this to the data center code which responds to your data center. Refer to the list of data-center-specific Bullhorn API URLs: https://bullhorn.github.io/Data-Center-URLs/

If you are uncertain about your data center code, codes like CLS2, CLS21, etc. are cluster IDs that are contained in a user's browser URL (address bar) once they are logged in.

Example: https://cls21.bullhornstaffing.com/BullhornSTAFFING/MainFrame.jsp?#no-ba... indicates that the logged in user is on CLS21.

Authenticating with OAuth

Bullhorn CRM uses the OAuth 2.0 authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, create and configure a custom OAuth app. See the Help documentation for more information.

Installing Ruby and Necessary Gems

If you do not have Ruby installed, refer to the Ruby installation page. With Ruby installed, you will need to install the ruby-dbi, dbd-odbc, and ruby-odbc gems:

gem install dbi
gem install dbd-odbc
gem install ruby-odbc

Create a Ruby App with Connectivity to Bullhorn CRM Data

Create a new Ruby file (for example: BullhornCRMSelect.rb) and open it in a text editor. Copy the following code into your file:

#connect to the DSN
require 'dbi'
cnxn = DBI.connect('DBI:ODBC:CData BullhornCRM Source','','')

#execute a SELECT query and store the result set
resultSet = cnxn.execute("SELECT Id, CandidateName FROM Candidate WHERE CandidateName = 'Jane Doe'")

#display the names of the columns
resultSet.column_names.each do |name|
 print name, "\t"
end
puts

#display the results
while row = resultSet.fetch do
 (0..resultSet.column_names.size - 1).each do |n|
 print row[n], "\t"
 end
 puts
end
resultSet.finish

#close the connection
cnxn.disconnect if cnxn

With the file completed, you are ready to display your Bullhorn CRM data with Ruby. To do so, simply run your file from the command line:

ruby BullhornCRMSelect.rb

Writing SQL-92 queries to Bullhorn CRM allows you to quickly and easily incorporate Bullhorn CRM data into your own Ruby applications. Download a free trial today!