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

Create a DAO for the iContact Campaigns 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 MyCampaignsDAO {
  //request specific data from iContact (String type is used for simplicity)
  @SqlQuery("SELECT CampaignId FROM Campaigns WHERE Name = :name")
  String findCampaignIdByName(@Bind("name") String name);

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

Open a Connection to iContact

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

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

iContact API Profile Settings

In your iContact account, navigate to Settings & Billing > Integrations and create a Custom API Integration. Your AppId, Username, Password, and AccountId are all available on the Getting Connected page of that integration.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\IContact.apip;ProfileSettings='AppId=your_app_id;Username=your_username;Password=your_password;AccountId=your_account_id';

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\IContact.apip;ProfileSettings='AppId=your_app_id;Username=your_username;Password=your_password;AccountId=your_account_id';");
MyCampaignsDAO dao = dbi.open(MyCampaignsDAO.class);

//do stuff with the DAO

dao.close();

Read iContact Data

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

//disply the result of our 'find' method
String campaignId = dao.findCampaignIdByName("Summer Newsletter 2024");
System.out.println(campaignId);

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