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Connect to live data from Printful with the API Driver

Connect to Printful

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Connect to Printful Data in Ruby


Connect to Printful data in Ruby with ruby-dbi, dbd-odbc, and ruby-odbc.

The CData ODBC Driver for Printful makes it easy to integrate connectivity to live Printful data in Ruby. This article shows how to create a simple Ruby app that connects to Printful data, executes a query, and displays the results.

Create an ODBC Connection to Printful Data

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. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

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

Printful API Profile Settings

In order to authenticate to Printful, you'll need to provide your API Key. To get your API Key, first go to 'Settings' then 'Stores'. Select the Store you would like to connect to, then click the 'Add API Access' button to generate an API Key. Set the API Key in the ProfileSettings property to connect.

Installing Ruby and Necessary Gems

If you do not have Ruby installed, refer to the Ruby installation page. With Ruby installed, you will need to install the ruby-dbi, dbd-odbc, and ruby-odbc gems:

gem install dbi gem install dbd-odbc gem install ruby-odbc

Create a Ruby App with Connectivity to Printful Data

Create a new Ruby file (for example: APISelect.rb) and open it in a text editor. Copy the following code into your file:

#connect to the DSN require 'DBI' cnxn = DBI.connect('DBI:ODBC:CData API Source','','') #execute a SELECT query and store the result set resultSet = cnxn.execute("SELECT Id, Store FROM Orders WHERE Status = 'inprocess'") #display the names of the columns resultSet.column_names.each do |name| print name, "\t" end puts #display the results while row = resultSet.fetch do (0..resultSet.column_names.size - 1).each do |n| print row[n], "\t" end puts end resultSet.finish #close the connection cnxn.disconnect if cnxn

With the file completed, you are ready to display your Printful data with Ruby. To do so, simply run your file from the command line:

ruby APISelect.rb Writing SQL-92 queries to Printful allows you to quickly and easily incorporate Printful data into your own Ruby applications. Download a free trial today!