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

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

Configuring the Connection to Adobe Analytics

You will need a JDBC connection string to establish a connection between Coldfusion and Adobe Analytics.

Adobe Analytics uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, you will need to create an app to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties. See the "Getting Started" section of the help documentation for a guide.

Retrieving GlobalCompanyId

GlobalCompanyId is a required connection property. If you do not know your Global Company ID, you can find it in the request URL for the users/me endpoint on the Swagger UI. After logging into the Swagger UI Url, expand the users endpoint and then click the GET users/me button. Click the Try it out and Execute buttons. Note your Global Company ID shown in the Request URL immediately preceding the users/me endpoint.

Retrieving Report Suite Id

Report Suite ID (RSID) is also a required connection property. In the Adobe Analytics UI, navigate to Admin -> Report Suites and you will get a list of your report suites along with their identifiers next to the name.

After setting the GlobalCompanyId, RSID and OAuth connection properties, you are ready to connect to Adobe Analytics.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

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 Adobe Analytics data and display it in a table written in the ColdFusion Markup Language, or CFML:

1. Copy the JDBC Driver for Adobe Analytics and lic file from "C:\Program Files\CData[product_name]\lib" to "C:\ColdFusion2021\cfusion\wwwroot\WEB-INF\lib". cdata.jdbc.adobeanalytics.jar cdata.jdbc.adobeanalytics.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.
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.
4. Next, populate the driver properties.
   • JDBC URL will need to be in the format: jdbc:adobeanalytics:|connectionString|.
   • A typical connection string looks like this:

     jdbc:adobeanalytics:GlobalCompanyId=myGlobalCompanyId; RSID=myRSID; OAuthClientId=myOauthClientId; OauthClientSecret=myOAuthClientSecret; CallbackURL=myCallbackURL;

   • The Driver Class is: cdata.jdbc.adobeanalytics.AdobeAnalyticsDriver
   • The Driver Name is arbitrary and simply used to recognize the data source in the ColdFusion administration console.
5. Now, test the connection by clicking the check mark to the left of the CDataAdobe AnalyticsJDBC data source you just created. When the data source reports an "OK" status, it is ready for use.
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="Adobe AnalyticsQuery" dataSource="CDataAdobe AnalyticsJDBC"> 
             SELECT * FROM AdsReport 
           </cfquery> 
       

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

               
             <cftable  
             query = "Adobe AnalyticsQuery" 
             border = "1" 
             colHeaders 
             colSpacing = "2" 
             headerLines = "2" 
             HTMLTable 
             maxRows = "500" 
             startRow = "1"> 
   
             <cfcol header="<b>Page</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="Page"/> 
   
             <cfcol header="<b>PageViews</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="PageViews"/> 
   
             ...
   
           </cftable> 
       

   Full code, including the HTML portion is available below:

               
           <html> 
           <head><title>CData Software | Adobe Analytics AdsReport Table Demo </title></head> 
           <body> 
           <cfoutput>#ucase("Adobe Analytics AdsReport Table Demo")#</cfoutput> 
           <cfquery name="Adobe AnalyticsQuery" dataSource="CDataAdobe AnalyticsJDBC"> 
   
             SELECT * FROM AdsReport 
   
           </cfquery> 
           <cftable  
             query = "Adobe AnalyticsQuery" 
             border = "1" 
             colHeaders 
             colSpacing = "2" 
             headerLines = "2" 
             HTMLTable 
             maxRows = "500" 
             startRow = "1"> 
             <cfcol header="<b>Page</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="Page"/> 
   
             <cfcol header="<b>PageViews</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="PageViews"/> 
   
             ...
   
           </cftable> 
           </body> 
   
           </html>  
       

7. Finally, run the code locally in a browser at the default port of 8500. It produces a table populated with Adobe Analytics data!

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 Adobe Analytics and start building Adobe Analytics-connected applications with Adobe ColdFusion. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.