Discover how a bimodal integration strategy can address the major data management challenges facing your organization today.
Get the Report →Import Real-Time JotForm Data in ColdFusion to Build Applications
Use CData JDBC drivers to import and use JotForm data in ColdFusion.
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 API Driver for JDBC, you can link your ColdFusion web and mobile applications to operational JotForm 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 JotForm data from within a ColdFusion markup file.
With built-in optimized data processing, the CData JDBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live JotForm data. When you issue complex SQL queries to JotForm, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to JotForm 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 JotForm data using native data types.
Configuring the Connection to JotForm
You will need a JDBC connection string to establish a connection between Coldfusion and JotForm.
Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the JotForm Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\JotForm.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for JotForm (see below).
JotForm API Profile Settings
You will need to find your JotForm API Key in order to authenticate. To obtain an API Key, go to 'My Account' > 'API Section' > 'Create a New API Key'. Once you've created your new API Key, you can set it in the ProfileSettings connection property.
Custom Enterprise API Domains
Enterprise customers of JotForm are given custom API domains to connect to, rather than the default 'api.jotform.com' domain. If you are an enterprise JotForm customer, then set Domain to you custom API hostname, such as 'your-domain.com' or 'subdomain.jotform.com', inside the ProfileSettings connection property. Conversely, if you do not have a custom domain and still need to connect to 'api.jotform.com', then leave Domain undefined and set only APIKey.
Built-in Connection String Designer
For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the JotForm JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.
java -jar cdata.jdbc.api.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 JotForm data and display it in a table written in the ColdFusion Markup Language, or CFML:
-
Copy the JDBC Driver for JotForm and lic file from "C:\Program Files\CData[product_name]\lib" to
"C:\ColdFusion2021\cfusion\wwwroot\WEB-INF\lib".
cdata.jdbc.api.jar cdata.jdbc.api.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.
- From the ColdFusion administrator interface, choose Data & Services.
- 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.
-
Next, populate the driver properties.
- JDBC URL will need to be in the format: jdbc:api:|connectionString|.
- A typical connection string looks like this:
jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\JotForm.apip;ProfileSettings='APIKey=my_api_key;Domain=my_custom_domain';
- The Driver Class is: cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver
- The Driver Name is arbitrary and simply used to recognize the data source in the ColdFusion administration console.
- Now, test the connection by clicking the check mark to the left of the CDataJotFormJDBC data source you just created. When the data source reports an "OK" status, it is ready for use.
-
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="JotFormQuery" dataSource="CDataJotFormJDBC"> SELECT * FROM Forms </cfquery>
And a CFTable can be used to quickly output the table in HTML:<cftable query = "JotFormQuery" border = "1" colHeaders colSpacing = "2" headerLines = "2" HTMLTable maxRows = "500" startRow = "1"> <cfcol header="<b>Id</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="Id"/> <cfcol header="<b>Title</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="Title"/> ... </cftable>
Full code, including the HTML portion is available below:<html> <head><title>CData Software | JotForm Forms Table Demo </title></head> <body> <cfoutput>#ucase("JotForm Forms Table Demo")#</cfoutput> <cfquery name="JotFormQuery" dataSource="CDataJotFormJDBC"> SELECT * FROM Forms </cfquery> <cftable query = "JotFormQuery" border = "1" colHeaders colSpacing = "2" headerLines = "2" HTMLTable maxRows = "500" startRow = "1"> <cfcol header="<b>Id</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="Id"/> <cfcol header="<b>Title</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="Title"/> ... </cftable> </body> </html>
- Finally, run the code locally in a browser at the default port of 8500. It produces a table populated with JotForm 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 JotForm and start building JotForm-connected applications with Adobe ColdFusion. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.