Connect to Zendesk Data from a Connection Pool in Jetty

The CData JDBC driver for Zendesk is easy to integrate with Java Web applications. This article shows how to efficiently connect to Zendesk data in Jetty by configuring the driver for connection pooling. You will configure a JNDI resource for Zendesk in Jetty.

Configure the JDBC Driver for Salesforce as a JNDI Data Source

Follow the steps below to connect to Salesforce from Jetty.

1. Enable the JNDI module for your Jetty base. The following command enables JNDI from the command-line:

   java -jar ../start.jar --add-to-startd=jndi
   

2. Add the CData and license file, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory, into the lib subfolder of the context path.

3. Declare the resource and its scope. Enter the required connection properties in the resource declaration. This example declares the Zendesk data source at the level of the Web app, in WEB-INF\jetty-env.xml.

   <Configure id='zendeskdemo' class="org.eclipse.jetty.webapp.WebAppContext">
    <New id="zendeskdemo" class="org.eclipse.jetty.plus.jndi.Resource">
    <Arg><Ref refid="zendeskdemo"/></Arg>
    <Arg>jdbc/zendeskdb</Arg>
    <Arg>
    <New class="cdata.jdbc.zendesk.ZendeskDriver">
    <Set name="url">jdbc:zendesk:</Set>
    <Set name="URL">https://subdomain.zendesk.com</Set>
    <Set name="User">[email protected]</Set>
    <Set name="Password">test123</Set>
    <Set name="InitiateOAuth">GETANDREFRESH</Set>
    </New>
    </Arg>
    </New>
   </Configure>
   

   Connecting to Zendesk

   To connect, set the URL and provide authentication. The URL is your Zendesk Support URL: https://{subdomain}.zendesk.com.

   Authenticating to Zendesk

   You can authenticate using the Basic or OAuth methods.

   Using Basic Authentication

   To use Basic authentication, specify your email address and password or your email address and an API token. Set User to your email address and follow the steps below to provide the Password or ApiToken.

   • Enable password access in the Zendesk Support admin interface at Admin > Channels > API.
   • Manage API tokens in the Zendesk Support Admin interface at Admin > Channels > API. More than one token can be active at the same time. Deleting a token deactivates it permanently.

   Using OAuth Authentication

   See the Getting Started guide in the CData driver documentation for an authentication guide.

4. Configure the resource in the Web.xml:

    jdbc/zendeskdb
    javax.sql.DataSource
    Container
   
   

5. You can then access Zendesk with a lookup to java:comp/env/jdbc/zendeskdb:

   InitialContext ctx = new InitialContext();
   DataSource myzendesk = (DataSource)ctx.lookup("java:comp/env/jdbc/zendeskdb");
   

More Jetty Integration

The steps above show how to configure the driver in a simple connection pooling scenario. For more use cases and information, see the Working with Jetty JNDI chapter in the Jetty documentation.