Import Real-Time Twitter Ads 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 Twitter Ads, you can link your ColdFusion web and mobile applications to operational Twitter Ads 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 Twitter Ads data from within a ColdFusion markup file.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData JDBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Twitter Ads data. When you issue complex SQL queries to Twitter Ads, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Twitter Ads 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 Twitter Ads data using native data types.

Configuring the Connection to Twitter Ads

You will need a JDBC connection string to establish a connection between Coldfusion and Twitter Ads.

All tables require authentication. You must use OAuth to authenticate with Twitter. OAuth requires the authenticating user to interact with Twitter using the browser. For more information, refer to the OAuth section in the Help documentation.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

java -jar cdata.jdbc.twitterads.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 Twitter Ads data and display it in a table written in the ColdFusion Markup Language, or CFML:

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

    cdata.jdbc.twitterads.jar
    cdata.jdbc.twitterads.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:twitterads:|connectionString|.
   • A typical connection string looks like this:

     jdbc:twitterads:InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;

   • The Driver Class is: cdata.jdbc.twitterads.TwitterAdsDriver
   • 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 CDataTwitter AdsJDBC 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="Twitter AdsQuery" dataSource="CDataTwitter AdsJDBC"> 
    SELECT * FROM AdStats 
    </cfquery> 
    

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

    
    <cftable 
    query = "Twitter AdsQuery" 
    border = "1" 
    colHeaders 
    colSpacing = "2" 
    headerLines = "2" 
    HTMLTable 
    maxRows = "500" 
    startRow = "1"> 
   
    <cfcol header="<b>EntityId</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="EntityId"/> 
   
    <cfcol header="<b>Entity</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="Entity"/> 
   
    ...
   
    </cftable> 
    

   Full code, including the HTML portion is available below:

    
    <html> 
    <head><title>CData Software | Twitter Ads AdStats Table Demo </title></head> 
    <body> 
    <cfoutput>#ucase("Twitter Ads AdStats Table Demo")#</cfoutput> 
    <cfquery name="Twitter AdsQuery" dataSource="CDataTwitter AdsJDBC"> 
   
    SELECT * FROM AdStats 
   
    </cfquery> 
    <cftable 
    query = "Twitter AdsQuery" 
    border = "1" 
    colHeaders 
    colSpacing = "2" 
    headerLines = "2" 
    HTMLTable 
    maxRows = "500" 
    startRow = "1"> 
    <cfcol header="<b>EntityId</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="EntityId"/> 
   
    <cfcol header="<b>Entity</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="Entity"/> 
   
    ...
   
    </cftable> 
    </body> 
   
    </html> 
    

7. Finally, run the code locally in a browser at the default port of 8500. It produces a table populated with Twitter Ads 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 Twitter Ads and start building Twitter Ads-connected applications with Adobe ColdFusion. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.