Import Real-Time Amazon S3 Data in ColdFusion to Build Applications


Use CData ODBC drivers to import and use Amazon S3 data in ColdFusion.

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 ODBC Driver for Amazon S3, you can link your ColdFusion web and mobile applications to operational Amazon S3 data. This allows for your applications to be more robust and complete. This article details how to use the ODBC driver to create a table populated with Amazon S3 data from within a ColdFusion markup file.

To follow along with this tutorial, you need to install the CData ODBC Driver for Amazon S3 and Adobe ColdFusion.

Configuring the Connection

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 process. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

To authorize Amazon S3 requests, provide the credentials for an administrator account or for an IAM user with custom permissions. Set AccessKey to the access key Id. Set SecretKey to the secret access key.

Note: You can connect as the AWS account administrator, but it is recommended to use IAM user credentials to access AWS services.

For information on obtaining the credentials and other authentication methods, refer to the Getting Started section of the Help documentation.

Adding a Data Source and Creating a Table

After creating a DSN, follow the steps below to add a new data source, test our connection to it, create a ColdFusion markup file, and, finally, import Amazon S3 Amazon S3 data and display it in a table in ColdFusion:

  1. From the ColdFusion administrator interface, choose Data & Services.
  2. Here, click "Add New Data Source". The data source name can be any name, provided it conforms to the ColdFusion variable naming conventions. For our ODBC driver, choose "ODBC Socket", then click the "Add" button.
  3. From the ODBC DSN Dropdown menu select CData Amazon S3 Sys. Under the Advanced Settings section, leave the Connection String blank. Note that any properties specified in this input field will override the ones specified in the DSN Configuration.
  4. Now, test the connection by pressing the check mark to the left of the CDataAmazon S3ODBC data source you just created. When the data source reports an "OK" status, it is ready for use.
  5. 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="Amazon S3Query" dataSource="CDataAmazon S3ODBC"> 
          SELECT * FROM ObjectsACL 
        </cfquery>
    And a CFTable can be used to quickly output the table in HTML: 
                
          <cftable  
          query = "Amazon S3Query" 
          border = "1" 
          colHeaders 
          colSpacing = "2" 
          headerLines = "2" 
          HTMLTable 
          maxRows = "500" 
          startRow = "1"> 

          <cfcol header="<b>Name</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="Name"/> 

          <cfcol header="<b>OwnerId</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="OwnerId"/> 

          ...

        </cftable>
    Full code, including the HTML portion is available below: 
                
        <html> 
        <head><title>CData Software | Amazon S3 ObjectsACL Table Demo </title></head> 
        <body> 
        <cfoutput>#ucase("Amazon S3 ObjectsACL Table Demo")#</cfoutput> 
        <cfquery name="Amazon S3Query" dataSource="CDataAmazon S3ODBC"> 

          SELECT * FROM ObjectsACL 

        </cfquery> 
        <cftable  
          query = "Amazon S3Query" 
          border = "1" 
          colHeaders 
          colSpacing = "2" 
          headerLines = "2" 
          HTMLTable 
          maxRows = "500" 
          startRow = "1"> 
          <cfcol header="<b>Name</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="Name"/> 

          <cfcol header="<b>OwnerId</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="OwnerId"/> 

          ...

        </cftable> 
        </body> 

        </html>
  6. Finally, run the code in a browser. It produces a table populated with Amazon S3 data!

As a note, the CData ODBC 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 ODBC Driver for Amazon S3 and start building Amazon S3-connected applications with Adobe ColdFusion. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the Amazon S3 ODBC Driver to get started:

 Download Now

Learn more:

Amazon S3 Icon Amazon S3 ODBC Driver

The Amazon S3 ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live Amazon S3 cloud storage, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Amazon S3 like you would a database - access Objects, Buckets, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

In this article

Related articles