Import Real-Time SAS Data Sets Data via JDBC 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 JDBC Driver for SAS Data Sets, you can link your ColdFusion web and mobile applications to operational SAS Data Sets data. This allows for your applications to be more robust and complete. This article details how to use the JDBC driver to create a table populated with SAS Data Sets data from within a ColdFusion markup file.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData JDBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live SAS Data Sets data. When you issue complex SQL queries to SAS Data Sets, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to SAS Data Sets and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (often SQL functions and JOIN operations). Its built-in dynamic metadata querying allows you to work with and analyze SAS Data Sets data using native data types.

Configuring the Connection to SAS Data Sets

You will need a JDBC connection string to establish a connection between Coldfusion and SAS Data Sets.

Set the following connection properties to connect to your SAS DataSet files:

Connecting to Local Files

• Set the Connection Type to "Local." Local files support SELECT, INSERT, and DELETE commands.
• Set the URI to a folder containing SAS files, e.g. C:\PATH\TO\FOLDER\.

Connecting to Cloud-Hosted SAS DataSet Files

While the driver is capable of pulling data from SAS DataSet files hosted on a variety of cloud data stores, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE are not supported outside of local files in this driver.

Set the Connection Type to the service hosting your SAS DataSet files. A unique prefix at the beginning of the URI connection property is used to identify the cloud data store and the remainder of the path is a relative path to the desired folder (one table per file) or single file (a single table). For more information, refer to the Getting Started section of the Help documentation.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

java -jar cdata.jdbc.sasdatasets.jar

Adding a Data Source and Creating a Table

After configuring the connection, follow the steps below to add the CData JDBC Driver to ColdFusion's lib directory, add a new data source, test the connection, create a ColdFusion markup file, and, finally, make a real-time connection with SAS Data Sets data and display it in a table written in the ColdFusion Markup Language, or CFML:

1. Copy the JDBC Driver for SAS Data Sets and lic file from "C:\Program Files\CData[product_name]\lib" to "C:\ColdFusion2021\cfusion\wwwroot\WEB-INF\lib".

    cdata.jdbc.sasdatasets.jar
    cdata.jdbc.sasdatasets.lic
    

   Note: If you do not copy the .lic file with the jar, you will see a licensing error that indicates you do not have a valid license installed. This is true for both the trial and full versions.

2. From the ColdFusion administrator interface, choose Data & Services. 👁 Selecting Data & Services
   
3. Here, we can "Add New Data Source". The data source name can be any name, provided it conforms to the ColdFusion variable naming conventions. For our JDBC driver, choose "other", then click the "Add" button. 👁 Adding Data Source Name
   
4. Next, populate the driver properties.
   • JDBC URL will need to be in the format: jdbc:sasdatasets:|connectionString|.
   • A typical connection string looks like this:

     jdbc:sasdatasets:URI=C:/myfolder;

   • The Driver Class is: cdata.jdbc.sasdatasets.SASDataSetsDriver
   • The Driver Name is arbitrary and simply used to recognize the data source in the ColdFusion administration console.
   👁 Populating driver properties
   
5. Now, test the connection by clicking the check mark to the left of the CDataSAS Data SetsJDBC data source you just created. When the data source reports an "OK" status, it is ready for use. 👁 Testing the connection
   
6. 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="SAS Data SetsQuery" dataSource="CDataSAS Data SetsJDBC"> 
    SELECT * FROM restaurants 
    </cfquery> 
    

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

    
    <cftable 
    query = "SAS Data SetsQuery" 
    border = "1" 
    colHeaders 
    colSpacing = "2" 
    headerLines = "2" 
    HTMLTable 
    maxRows = "500" 
    startRow = "1"> 
   
    <cfcol header="<b>name</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="name"/> 
   
    <cfcol header="<b>borough</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="borough"/> 
   
    ...
   
    </cftable> 
    

   Full code, including the HTML portion is available below:

    
    <html> 
    <head><title>CData Software | SAS Data Sets restaurants Table Demo </title></head> 
    <body> 
    <cfoutput>#ucase("SAS Data Sets restaurants Table Demo")#</cfoutput> 
    <cfquery name="SAS Data SetsQuery" dataSource="CDataSAS Data SetsJDBC"> 
   
    SELECT * FROM restaurants 
   
    </cfquery> 
    <cftable 
    query = "SAS Data SetsQuery" 
    border = "1" 
    colHeaders 
    colSpacing = "2" 
    headerLines = "2" 
    HTMLTable 
    maxRows = "500" 
    startRow = "1"> 
    <cfcol header="<b>name</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="name"/> 
   
    <cfcol header="<b>borough</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="borough"/> 
   
    ...
   
    </cftable> 
    </body> 
   
    </html> 
    

7. Finally, run the code locally in a browser at the default port of 8500. It produces a table populated with SAS Data Sets data! 👁 Running the code
   

As a note, the CData JDBC 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 JDBC Driver for SAS Data Sets and start building SAS Data Sets-connected applications with Adobe ColdFusion. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.