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

Create a DAO for the Freshdesk Tickets 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 MyTicketsDAO {
 //insert new data into Freshdesk
 @SqlUpdate("INSERT INTO Tickets (Status, Name) values (:status, :name)")
 void insert(@Bind("status") String status, @Bind("name") String name);

 //request specific data from Freshdesk (String type is used for simplicity)
 @SqlQuery("SELECT Name FROM Tickets WHERE Status = :status")
 String findNameByStatus(@Bind("status") String status);

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

Open a Connection to Freshdesk

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

FreshDesk makes use of basic authentication. To connect to data, set the following connection properties:

• Domain: Set this to the domain associated with your FreshDesk account. For example, in your URL: https://my_domain.freshdesk.com.
• APIKey: Set this to the API key associated with your FreshDesk account. To retrieve your API key, Log into your support Portal -> Click on profile picture in the top right corner -> profile settings page. The API key will be available below the change password section to the right.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

java -jar cdata.jdbc.freshdesk.jar

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

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

jdbc:freshdesk:Domain=MyDomain;APIKey=myAPIKey;

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:freshdesk:Domain=MyDomain;APIKey=myAPIKey;");
MyTicketsDAO dao = dbi.open(MyTicketsDAO.class);

//do stuff with the DAO

dao.close();

Read Freshdesk Data

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

//disply the result of our 'find' method
String name = dao.findNameByStatus("2");
System.out.println(name);

Write Freshdesk Data

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

//add a new entry to the Tickets entity
dao.insert(newStatus, newName);

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