Create a Data Access Object for Adobe Experience Manager 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 Adobe Experience Manager integrates connectivity to live Adobe Experience Manager data in Java applications. By pairing these technologies, you gain simple, programmatic access to Adobe Experience Manager data. This article walks through building a basic Data Access Object (DAO) and the accompanying code to read Adobe Experience Manager data.

Create a DAO for the Adobe Experience Manager Content 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 MyContentDAO {
  //request specific data from Adobe Experience Manager (String type is used for simplicity)
  @SqlQuery("SELECT Name FROM Content WHERE Name = :name")
  String findNameByName(@Bind("name") String name);

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

Open a Connection to Adobe Experience Manager

Collect the necessary connection properties and construct the appropriate JDBC URL for connecting to Adobe Experience Manager.

The driver connects to Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) instances that expose the JCR repository over WebDAV. It supports both on-premises AEM and AEM as a Cloud Service deployments.

To establish a connection, set the following properties:

• URL: The WebDAV-enabled JCR server URL.
  • AEM as a Cloud Service: https://author-pXXXXX-eXXXXX.adobeaemcloud.com/crx/server
  • Local development: http://localhost:4502/crx/server
• User: Your AEM username.
• Password: Your AEM password.

Note: Tables are dynamically generated based on the JCR repository structure. Ensure that the configured user has sufficient permissions to access the required content paths in the AEM repository.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

java -jar cdata.jdbc.adobeexperiencemanager.jar

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

A connection string for Adobe Experience Manager will typically look like the following:

jdbc:adobeexperiencemanager:URL=https://author-p12345-e67890.adobeaemcloud.com/crx/server;User=admin;Password=admin;

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:adobeexperiencemanager:URL=https://author-p12345-e67890.adobeaemcloud.com/crx/server;User=admin;Password=admin;");
MyContentDAO dao = dbi.open(MyContentDAO.class);

//do stuff with the DAO

dao.close();

Read Adobe Experience Manager Data

With the connection open to Adobe Experience Manager, simply call the previously defined method to retrieve data from the Content entity in Adobe Experience Manager.

//disply the result of our 'find' method
String name = dao.findNameByName("example");
System.out.println(name);

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