Rapidly Develop Adobe Experience Manager-Driven Apps with Active Query Builder

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Leverage the Active Query Builder SQL interface builder and the ease of .NET data access to create data-driven WinForms and ASP.NET apps.

Write standard .NET to expose Adobe Experience Manager data through an SQL interface: Active Query Builder helps developers write SQL interfaces; the CData ODBC Driver for Adobe Experience Manager enables standards-based access to Adobe Experience Manager. This integration uses the Microsoft ADO.NET Provider for ODBC as a bridge between the ODBC Driver and the Active Query Builder objects to build a visual SQL composer.

Connect to Adobe Experience Manager as an ODBC Data Source

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

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.

Use SQL to Interact with Adobe Experience Manager

Follow the steps below to create a WinForms visual query builder.

  1. Open Active Query Builder for .NET WinForms.
  2. In the new Windows Forms project go to the "File" menu and click "Connect..."
  3. Under Database Connections, click "Add..."
  4. Set your desired Connection Name (e.g. CData Adobe Experience Manager), set Connection Type to "ODBC" and locate your previously configured DSN in the "User/System" DSN dropdown.
  5. Click "OK" to save the new connection.
  6. Back in the Database Connection wizard, select the newly created connection and click "OK."
  7. Click "File" > "New Query" to create a QueryBuilder

You can now build queries visually: Double-click a table in the Columns Pane Area and an entity/relationship diagram is displayed in the Query Building Area. Columns that you select in the diagram are added to the query.

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the Adobe Experience Manager ODBC Driver to get started:

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Adobe Experience Manager Icon Adobe Experience Manager ODBC Driver

The Adobe Experience Manager ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from Adobe Experience Manager, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Adobe Experience Manager data like you would a database - read, write, and update Adobe Experience Manager 0, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.