Import Real-Time Lakebase Data via ODBC in ColdFusion to Build Applications

Adobe ColdFusion is a web and mobile application development platform. It uses its own scripting language, ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML), to create data-driven websites as well as generate remote services, such as REST. When ColdFusion is paired with the CData ODBC Driver for Lakebase, you can link your ColdFusion web and mobile applications to operational Lakebase data. This allows for your applications to be more robust and complete. This article details how to use the ODBC driver to create a table populated with Lakebase data from within a ColdFusion markup file.

To follow along with this tutorial, you need to install the CData ODBC Driver for Lakebase and Adobe ColdFusion.

Configuring the Connection

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

To connect to Databricks Lakebase, start by setting the following properties:

• DatabricksInstance: The Databricks instance or server hostname, provided in the format instance-abcdef12-3456-7890-abcd-abcdef123456.database.cloud.databricks.com.
• Server: The host name or IP address of the server hosting the Lakebase database.
• Port (optional): The port of the server hosting the Lakebase database, set to 5432 by default.
• Database (optional): The database to connect to after authenticating to the Lakebase Server, set to the authenticating user's default database by default.

OAuth Client Authentication

To authenicate using OAuth client credentials, you need to configure an OAuth client in your service principal. In short, you need to do the following:

1. Create and configure a new service principal
2. Assign permissions to the service principal
3. Create an OAuth secret for the service principal

For more information, refer to the Setting Up OAuthClient Authentication section in the Help documentation.

OAuth PKCE Authentication

To authenticate using the OAuth code type with PKCE (Proof Key for Code Exchange), set the following properties:

• AuthScheme: OAuthPKCE.
• User: The authenticating user's user ID.

For more information, refer to the Help documentation.

Adding a Data Source and Creating a Table

After creating a DSN, follow the steps below to add a new data source, test our connection to it, create a ColdFusion markup file, and, finally, import Lakebase Data and display it in a table in ColdFusion:

1. From the ColdFusion administrator interface, choose Data & Services. 👁 Selecting Data & Services
   
2. Here, click "Add New Data Source". The data source name can be any name, provided it conforms to the ColdFusion variable naming conventions. For our ODBC driver, choose "ODBC Socket", then click the "Add" button. 👁 Adding Data Source Name
   
3. From the ODBC DSN Dropdown menu select CData Lakebase Sys. Under the Advanced Settings section, leave the Connection String blank. Note that any properties specified in this input field will override the ones specified in the DSN Configuration. 👁 Populating driver properties
   
4. Now, test the connection by pressing the check mark to the left of the CDataLakebaseODBC data source you just created. When the data source reports an "OK" status, it is ready for use. 👁 Testing the connection
   
5. Next, create a new ColdFusion Markup file (.cfm) and place it in the wwwroot directory ("C:\ColdFusion2021\cfusion\wwwroot") for ColdFusion.

   The following code queries the data source:

    
    <cfquery name="LakebaseQuery" dataSource="CDataLakebaseODBC"> 
    SELECT * FROM Orders 
    </cfquery> 
    

   And a CFTable can be used to quickly output the table in HTML:

    
    <cftable 
    query = "LakebaseQuery" 
    border = "1" 
    colHeaders 
    colSpacing = "2" 
    headerLines = "2" 
    HTMLTable 
    maxRows = "500" 
    startRow = "1"> 
   
    <cfcol header="<b>ShipName</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="ShipName"/> 
   
    <cfcol header="<b>ShipCity</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="ShipCity"/> 
   
    ...
   
    </cftable> 
    

   Full code, including the HTML portion is available below:

    
    <html> 
    <head><title>CData Software | Lakebase Orders Table Demo </title></head> 
    <body> 
    <cfoutput>#ucase("Lakebase Orders Table Demo")#</cfoutput> 
    <cfquery name="LakebaseQuery" dataSource="CDataLakebaseODBC"> 
   
    SELECT * FROM Orders 
   
    </cfquery> 
    <cftable 
    query = "LakebaseQuery" 
    border = "1" 
    colHeaders 
    colSpacing = "2" 
    headerLines = "2" 
    HTMLTable 
    maxRows = "500" 
    startRow = "1"> 
    <cfcol header="<b>ShipName</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="ShipName"/> 
   
    <cfcol header="<b>ShipCity</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="ShipCity"/> 
   
    ...
   
    </cftable> 
    </body> 
   
    </html> 
    

6. Finally, run the code in a browser. It produces a table populated with Lakebase data! 👁 Running the code
   

As a note, the CData ODBC Drivers also support parameterized queries using the cfqueryparam element. For example:

SELECT * FROM Account WHERE name = 

Get Started Today

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData ODBC Driver for Lakebase and start building Lakebase-connected applications with Adobe ColdFusion. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.