Import Real-Time Alchemy Data via JDBC 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 Alchemy 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 Alchemy data from within a ColdFusion markup file.

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

Configuring the Connection to Alchemy

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

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

Alchemy API Profile Settings

Alchemy uses API key authentication. The API key is supplied in the request URL path. To obtain an API key:

1. Sign in to your Alchemy account at https://dashboard.alchemy.com.
2. Open an existing app or create a new one.
3. Copy the app's API key from the API Key dialog.

After obtaining your API key, set the following connection properties:

• AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
• Network: Optional. The blockchain network slug for NFT API requests (for example, eth-mainnet, base-mainnet, polygon-mainnet). Defaults to eth-mainnet.

Set the following in the ProfileSettings connection property:

• APIKey: Set this to your Alchemy app API key.

Built-in Connection String Designer

For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Alchemy 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 Alchemy data and display it in a table written in the ColdFusion Markup Language, or CFML:

1. Copy the JDBC Driver for Alchemy and lic file from "C:\Program Files\CData\CData API Driver for JDBC\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\Alchemy.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;Network=eth-mainnet;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key';

   • 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 CDataAlchemyJDBC 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="AlchemyQuery" dataSource="CDataAlchemyJDBC"> 
             SELECT * FROM ContractsForOwner 
           </cfquery> 
       

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

               
             <cftable  
             query = "AlchemyQuery" 
             border = "1" 
             colHeaders 
             colSpacing = "2" 
             headerLines = "2" 
             HTMLTable 
             maxRows = "500" 
             startRow = "1"> 
   
             <cfcol header="<b>Address</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="Address"/> 
   
             <cfcol header="<b>Name</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="Name"/> 
   
             ...
   
           </cftable> 
       

   Full code, including the HTML portion is available below:

               
           <html> 
           <head><title>CData Software | Alchemy ContractsForOwner Table Demo </title></head> 
           <body> 
           <cfoutput>#ucase("Alchemy ContractsForOwner Table Demo")#</cfoutput> 
           <cfquery name="AlchemyQuery" dataSource="CDataAlchemyJDBC"> 
   
             SELECT * FROM ContractsForOwner 
   
           </cfquery> 
           <cftable  
             query = "AlchemyQuery" 
             border = "1" 
             colHeaders 
             colSpacing = "2" 
             headerLines = "2" 
             HTMLTable 
             maxRows = "500" 
             startRow = "1"> 
             <cfcol header="<b>Address</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="Address"/> 
   
             <cfcol header="<b>Name</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="Name"/> 
   
             ...
   
           </cftable> 
           </body> 
   
           </html>  
       

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