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

Create a DAO for the Epicor Kinetic 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 Epicor Kinetic
 @SqlUpdate("INSERT INTO Customers (CompanyName, Company) values (:companyName, :company)")
 void insert(@Bind("companyName") String companyName, @Bind("company") String company);

 //request specific data from Epicor Kinetic (String type is used for simplicity)
 @SqlQuery("SELECT Company FROM Customers WHERE CompanyName = :companyName")
 String findCompanyByCompanyName(@Bind("companyName") String companyName);

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

Open a Connection to Epicor Kinetic

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

To successfully connect to your ERP instance, you must specify the following connection properties:

• Url:the URL of the server hosting your ERP instance. For example, https://myserver.EpicorSaaS.com
• ERPInstance: the name of your ERP instance.
• User: the username of your account.
• Password: the password of your account.
• Service: the service you want to retrieve data from. For example, BaqSvc.

In addition, you may also set the optional connection properties:

• ApiKey: An optional key that may be required for connection to some services depending on your account configuration.
• ApiVersion: Defaults to v1. May be set to v2 to use the newer Epicor API.
• Company: Required if you set the ApiVersion to v2.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

java -jar cdata.jdbc.epicorerp.jar

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

👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)

A connection string for Epicor Kinetic will typically look like the following:

jdbc:epicorerp:Service=Erp.BO.CustomerSvc;ERPInstance=MyInstance;URL=https://myaccount.epicorsaas.com;User=username;Password=password;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:epicorerp:Service=Erp.BO.CustomerSvc;ERPInstance=MyInstance;URL=https://myaccount.epicorsaas.com;User=username;Password=password;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;");
MyCustomersDAO dao = dbi.open(MyCustomersDAO.class);

//do stuff with the DAO

dao.close();

Read Epicor Kinetic Data

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

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

Write Epicor Kinetic Data

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

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

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