Connect to Helpscout Data from a Connection Pool in Jetty

The CData JDBC driver for Helpscout is easy to integrate with Java Web applications. This article shows how to efficiently connect to Helpscout data in Jetty by configuring the driver for connection pooling. You will configure a JNDI resource for Helpscout in Jetty.

Configure the JDBC Driver for Salesforce as a JNDI Data Source

Follow the steps below to connect to Salesforce from Jetty.

1. Enable the JNDI module for your Jetty base. The following command enables JNDI from the command-line:

   java -jar ../start.jar --add-to-startd=jndi
   

2. Add the CData and license file, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory, into the lib subfolder of the context path.

3. Declare the resource and its scope. Enter the required connection properties in the resource declaration. This example declares the Helpscout data source at the level of the Web app, in WEB-INF\jetty-env.xml.

   
   <Configure id='helpscoutdemo' class="org.eclipse.jetty.webapp.WebAppContext">
       <New id="helpscoutdemo" class="org.eclipse.jetty.plus.jndi.Resource">
       <Arg><Ref refid="helpscoutdemo"/></Arg>
       <Arg>jdbc/helpscoutdb</Arg>
       <Arg>
         <New class="cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver">
           <Set name="url">jdbc:api:</Set>
           <Set name="Profile">C:\profiles\Helpscout.apip</Set>
           <Set name="ProfileSettings">'APIKey</Set>
         </New>
       </Arg>
     </New>
   </Configure>
   

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

   Helpscout API Profile Settings

   Generate an API key in Help Scout by going to Your Profile > Authentication > Generate an API Key.

4. Configure the resource in the Web.xml:

   
     jdbc/helpscoutdb
     javax.sql.DataSource
     Container
   
   

5. You can then access Helpscout with a lookup to java:comp/env/jdbc/helpscoutdb:

   InitialContext ctx = new InitialContext();
   DataSource myhelpscout = (DataSource)ctx.lookup("java:comp/env/jdbc/helpscoutdb");
   

More Jetty Integration

The steps above show how to configure the driver in a simple connection pooling scenario. For more use cases and information, see the Working with Jetty JNDI chapter in the Jetty documentation.