Import Real-Time Google Spanner Data in ColdFusion to Build Applications



Use CData ODBC drivers to import and use Google Spanner 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 Google Spanner, you can link your ColdFusion web and mobile applications to operational Google Spanner 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 Google Spanner data from within a ColdFusion markup file.

To follow along with this tutorial, you need to install the CData ODBC Driver for Google Spanner 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.

Google Spanner uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, you can use the embedded credentials or register an app with Google.

See the Getting Started guide in the CData driver documentation for more information.

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 Google Spanner Google Spanner 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 Google Spanner 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 CDataGoogle SpannerODBC 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="Google SpannerQuery" dataSource="CDataGoogle SpannerODBC"> 
              SELECT * FROM Customer 
            </cfquery> 
        
    And a CFTable can be used to quickly output the table in HTML:
                
              <cftable  
              query = "Google SpannerQuery" 
              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>TotalDue</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="TotalDue"/> 
    
              ...
    
            </cftable> 
        
    Full code, including the HTML portion is available below:
                
            <html> 
            <head><title>CData Software | Google Spanner Customer Table Demo </title></head> 
            <body> 
            <cfoutput>#ucase("Google Spanner Customer Table Demo")#</cfoutput> 
            <cfquery name="Google SpannerQuery" dataSource="CDataGoogle SpannerODBC"> 
    
              SELECT * FROM Customer 
    
            </cfquery> 
            <cftable  
              query = "Google SpannerQuery" 
              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>TotalDue</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="TotalDue"/> 
    
              ...
    
            </cftable> 
            </body> 
    
            </html>  
        
  6. Finally, run the code in a browser. It produces a table populated with Google Spanner 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 Google Spanner and start building Google Spanner-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 Spanner ODBC Driver to get started:

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Google Cloud Spanner Icon Google Spanner ODBC Driver

The Google Cloud Spanner ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live Spanner Cloud databases, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Google Cloud Spanner like you would any other RDBMS - read, write, and update through a standard ODBC Driver interface.