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

Create a DAO for the Browserless Map 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 MyMapDAO {
  //request specific data from Browserless (String type is used for simplicity)
  @SqlQuery("SELECT  FROM Map WHERE Url = :url")
  String findByUrl(@Bind("url") String url);

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

Open a Connection to Browserless

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

Browserless uses HTTP API token authentication. Your Browserless API token is sent as the token query parameter on every request. You can generate or view your token in the Browserless dashboard at https://account.browserless.io/.

Using ApiKey Authentication

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

• AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
• APIKey: Set this to your Browserless API token.

Example connection string:

Profile=C:\profiles\Browserless.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings="ApiKey=your_api_token";

Built-in Connection String Designer

For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Browserless 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 Browserless will typically look like the following:

jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\Browserless.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings="ApiKey=your_api_token";

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\Browserless.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings="ApiKey=your_api_token";");
MyMapDAO dao = dbi.open(MyMapDAO.class);

//do stuff with the DAO

dao.close();

Read Browserless Data

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

//disply the result of our 'find' method
String  = dao.findByUrl("https://www.example.com");
System.out.println();

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