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

Create a DAO for the Greenhouse Applications 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 MyApplicationsDAO {
 //request specific data from Greenhouse (String type is used for simplicity)
 @SqlQuery("SELECT CandidateId FROM Applications WHERE Status = :status")
 String findCandidateIdByStatus(@Bind("status") String status);

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

Open a Connection to Greenhouse

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

You need an API key to connect to Greenhouse. To create an API key, follow the steps below:

1. Click the Configure icon in the navigation bar and locate Dev Center on the left.
2. Select API Credential Management.
3. Click Create New API Key.
• Set "API Type" to Harvest.
• Set "Partner" to custom.
• Optionally, provide a description.
4. Proceed to Manage permissions and select the appropriate permissions based on the resources you want to access through the driver.
5. Copy the created key and set APIKey to that value.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

java -jar cdata.jdbc.greenhouse.jar

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

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

jdbc:greenhouse:APIKey=YourAPIKey;

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:greenhouse:APIKey=YourAPIKey;");
MyApplicationsDAO dao = dbi.open(MyApplicationsDAO.class);

//do stuff with the DAO

dao.close();

Read Greenhouse Data

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

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

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