Create a Data Access Object for ApprovalMax 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 ApprovalMax integrates connectivity to live ApprovalMax data in Java applications. By pairing these technologies, you gain simple, programmatic access to ApprovalMax data. This article explains how to build a basic Data Access Object (DAO) and the accompanying code to read ApprovalMax data.

Create a DAO for the ApprovalMax UserProfiles 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 MyUserProfilesDAO {
  //request specific data from ApprovalMax (String type is used for simplicity)
  @SqlQuery("SELECT Email FROM UserProfiles WHERE CompanyId = :companyId")
  String findEmailByCompanyId(@Bind("companyId") String companyId);

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

Open a Connection to ApprovalMax

Collect the necessary connection properties and construct the appropriate JDBC URL for connecting to ApprovalMax.

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

ApprovalMax API Profile Settings

To authenticate to ApprovalMax and connect to your own data or to allow other users to connect to their data, the ApprovalMax Public API requires the OAuth 2.0 authorization code flow.

First, you will need to register an OAuth application with ApprovalMax. Sign in to the ApprovalMax Developer Portal (https://developer.approvalmax.com/applications) and create a new application. Your OAuth application will be assigned a Client ID and a Client Secret, and you must register at least one Redirect URI (Callback URL).

A Premium ApprovalMax subscription (or active trial) is required to use the Public API.

After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

• AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
• InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to manage the process to obtain the OAuthAccessToken.
• OAuthClientId: Set this to the Client ID that is shown in your application settings on the ApprovalMax Developer Portal.
• OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the Client Secret that is shown in your application settings on the ApprovalMax Developer Portal.
• CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI that is registered in your application settings.
• Scope: (Optional) Override the default OAuth scopes. The default value openid offline_access https://www.approvalmax.com/scopes/public_api/read grants read-only access to all tables in this profile and enables refresh tokens. Use the principle of least privilege when narrowing this scope.

The OAuth Authorization URL is https://identity.approvalmax.com/connect/authorize and the Token URL is https://identity.approvalmax.com/connect/token. Both authorization_code and refresh_token grant types are supported.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

java -jar cdata.jdbc.api.jar

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

A connection string for ApprovalMax will typically look like the following:

jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\ApprovalMax.apip;AuthScheme=OAuth;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OAuthClientId=your_client_id;OAuthClientSecret=your_client_secret;CallbackURL=your_callback_url;

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:api:Profile=C:\profiles\ApprovalMax.apip;AuthScheme=OAuth;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OAuthClientId=your_client_id;OAuthClientSecret=your_client_secret;CallbackURL=your_callback_url;");
MyUserProfilesDAO dao = dbi.open(MyUserProfilesDAO.class);

//do stuff with the DAO

dao.close();

Read ApprovalMax Data

With the connection open to ApprovalMax, simply call the previously defined method to retrieve data from the UserProfiles entity in ApprovalMax.

//disply the result of our 'find' method
String email = dao.findEmailByCompanyId("00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000");
System.out.println(email);

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