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

Create a DAO for the Zoho Inventory Contacts 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 MyContactsDAO {
 //insert new data into Zoho Inventory
 @SqlUpdate("INSERT INTO Contacts (FirstName, CustomerName) values (:firstName, :customerName)")
 void insert(@Bind("firstName") String firstName, @Bind("customerName") String customerName);

 //request specific data from Zoho Inventory (String type is used for simplicity)
 @SqlQuery("SELECT CustomerName FROM Contacts WHERE FirstName = :firstName")
 String findCustomerNameByFirstName(@Bind("firstName") String firstName);

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

Open a Connection to Zoho Inventory

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

In order to connect to Zoho Inventory, set the following connection properties:

• OrganizationId: set this to the ID associated with your specific Zoho Inventory organization
• InitiateOAuth: set the to "GETANDREFRESH"
• AccountsServer (Optional): set this full Account Server URL (only when manually refreshing the OAuth token)

The connectors use OAuth to authenticate with Zoho Inventory. 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 Zoho Inventory JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

java -jar cdata.jdbc.zohoinventory.jar

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

A connection string for Zoho Inventory will typically look like the following:

jdbc:zohoinventory:OrganizationId=YourOrganizationId;AccountsServer=YourAccountServerURL;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;

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:zohoinventory:OrganizationId=YourOrganizationId;AccountsServer=YourAccountServerURL;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;");
MyContactsDAO dao = dbi.open(MyContactsDAO.class);

//do stuff with the DAO

dao.close();

Read Zoho Inventory Data

With the connection open to Zoho Inventory, simply call the previously defined method to retrieve data from the Contacts entity in Zoho Inventory.

//disply the result of our 'find' method
String customerName = dao.findCustomerNameByFirstName("Katherine");
System.out.println(customerName);

Write Zoho Inventory Data

It is also simple to write data to Zoho Inventory, using the previously defined method.

//add a new entry to the Contacts entity
dao.insert(newFirstName, newCustomerName);

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