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

Create a DAO for the Canny Boards 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 MyBoardsDAO {
  //request specific data from Canny (String type is used for simplicity)
  @SqlQuery("SELECT Name FROM Boards WHERE IsPrivate = :isPrivate")
  String findNameByIsPrivate(@Bind("isPrivate") String isPrivate);

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

Open a Connection to Canny

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

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

Canny API Profile Settings

Canny uses a secret API key to control access to the API. The API key is sent as a JSON body parameter named 'apiKey' in every HTTP POST request to the Canny API endpoints.

To authenticate with the Canny API, you need your company-level secret API key. You can find this key in your Canny account under Settings > API.

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

• AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
• APIKey: Set this to your Canny company-level secret API key from the Settings > API page in your Canny dashboard.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\Canny.apip;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your-canny-api-key';

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\Canny.apip;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your-canny-api-key';");
MyBoardsDAO dao = dbi.open(MyBoardsDAO.class);

//do stuff with the DAO

dao.close();

Read Canny Data

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

//disply the result of our 'find' method
String name = dao.findNameByIsPrivate("false");
System.out.println(name);

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