Import Real-Time Printify 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 API Driver for JDBC, you can link your ColdFusion web and mobile applications to operational Printify 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 Printify data from within a ColdFusion markup file.

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

Configuring the Connection to Printify

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

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

Printify API Profile Settings

In order to authenticate to Printify, you'll need to provide your API Key. To get your API Key navigate to My Profile, then Connections. In the Connections section you will be able to generate your Personal Access Token (API Key) and set your Token Access Scopes. Personal Access Tokens are valid for one year. An expired Personal Access Token can be re-generated using the same steps after it expires. Set the API Key to your Personal Access Token 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 Printify 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 Printify data and display it in a table written in the ColdFusion Markup Language, or CFML:

1. Copy the JDBC Driver for Printify 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.

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:api:|connectionString|.
   • A typical connection string looks like this:

     jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\Printify.apip;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_personal_token';

   • 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.
5. Now, test the connection by clicking the check mark to the left of the CDataPrintifyJDBC 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="PrintifyQuery" dataSource="CDataPrintifyJDBC"> 
             SELECT * FROM Tags 
           </cfquery> 
       

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

               
             <cftable  
             query = "PrintifyQuery" 
             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>ShippingMethod</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="ShippingMethod"/> 
   
             ...
   
           </cftable> 
       

   Full code, including the HTML portion is available below:

               
           <html> 
           <head><title>CData Software | Printify Tags Table Demo </title></head> 
           <body> 
           <cfoutput>#ucase("Printify Tags Table Demo")#</cfoutput> 
           <cfquery name="PrintifyQuery" dataSource="CDataPrintifyJDBC"> 
   
             SELECT * FROM Tags 
   
           </cfquery> 
           <cftable  
             query = "PrintifyQuery" 
             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>ShippingMethod</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="ShippingMethod"/> 
   
             ...
   
           </cftable> 
           </body> 
   
           </html>  
       

7. Finally, run the code locally in a browser at the default port of 8500. It produces a table populated with Printify 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 Printify and start building Printify-connected applications with Adobe ColdFusion. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.