Learn more
 

Ready to get started?

Connect to live data from Printful with the API Driver

Connect to Printful

In this article

Related articles

Connect to Printful Data in JRuby


Create a simple JRuby app with access to live Printful data.

JRuby is a high-performance, stable, fully threaded Java implementation of the Ruby programming language. The CData JDBC Driver for Printful makes it easy to integrate connectivity to live Printful data in JRuby. This article shows how to create a simple JRuby app that connects to Printful data, executes a query, and displays the results.

Configure a JDBC Connection to Printful Data

Before creating the app, note the installation location for the JAR file for the JDBC Driver (typically C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for Printful\lib).

JRuby natively supports JDBC, so you can easily connect to Printful and execute SQL queries. Initialize the JDBC connection with the getConnection function of the java.sql.DriverManager class.

Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the Printful Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\Printful.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Printful (see below).

Printful API Profile Settings

In order to authenticate to Printful, you'll need to provide your API Key. To get your API Key, first go to 'Settings' then 'Stores'. Select the Store you would like to connect to, then click the 'Add API Access' button to generate an API Key. Set the API Key in the ProfileSettings property to connect.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

java -jar cdata.jdbc.api.jar

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

Below is a typical JDBC connection string for Printful:

jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\Printful.apip;ProfileSettings='APIKey=my_api_key';

Create a JRuby App with Connectivity to Printful Data

Create a new Ruby file (for example: APISelect.rb) and open it in a text editor. Copy the following code into your file:

require 'java' require 'rubygems' require 'C:/Program Files/CData/CData JDBC Driver for Printful 2018/lib/cdata.jdbc.api.jar' url = "jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\Printful.apip;ProfileSettings='APIKey=my_api_key';" conn = java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(url) stmt = conn.createStatement rs = stmt.executeQuery("SELECT Id, Store FROM Orders") while (rs.next) do puts rs.getString(1) + ' ' + rs.getString(2) end

With the file completed, you are ready to display your Printful data with JRuby. To do so, simply run your file from the command line:

jruby -S APISelect.rb

Writing SQL-92 queries to Printful allows you to quickly and easily incorporate Printful data into your own JRuby applications. Download a free trial today!