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

Create a DAO for the ConvertKit Accounts 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 MyAccountsDAO {
  //request specific data from ConvertKit (String type is used for simplicity)
  @SqlQuery("SELECT PlanType FROM Accounts WHERE PrimaryEmailAddress = :primaryEmailAddress")
  String findPlanTypeByPrimaryEmailAddress(@Bind("primaryEmailAddress") String primaryEmailAddress);

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

Open a Connection to ConvertKit

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

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

ConvertKit API Profile Settings

Navigate to Account Settings > Advanced > API in your ConvertKit account to find both your API Key and API Secret.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\ConvertKit.apip;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key;APISecret=your_api_secret';

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\ConvertKit.apip;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key;APISecret=your_api_secret';");
MyAccountsDAO dao = dbi.open(MyAccountsDAO.class);

//do stuff with the DAO

dao.close();

Read ConvertKit Data

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

//disply the result of our 'find' method
String planType = dao.findPlanTypeByPrimaryEmailAddress("[email protected]");
System.out.println(planType);

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