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

Create a DAO for the Respond.io Contacts 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 MyContactsDAO {
  //request specific data from Respond.io (String type is used for simplicity)
  @SqlQuery("SELECT Email FROM Contacts WHERE Identifier = :identifier")
  String findEmailByIdentifier(@Bind("identifier") String identifier);

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

Open a Connection to Respond.io

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

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

Respondio API Profile Settings

Respond.io uses API key authentication. To obtain an API key:

1. Log in to your Respond.io account.
2. Navigate to Settings in your workspace.
3. Select Developer under the Integrations section.
4. Copy the API key displayed on the page.

After obtaining your API key, set the following connection properties:

• AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.

Set the following in the ProfileSettings connection property:

• APIKey: Set this to your Respond.io API key.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\Respondio.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key';

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\Respondio.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key';");
MyContactsDAO dao = dbi.open(MyContactsDAO.class);

//do stuff with the DAO

dao.close();

Read Respond.io Data

With the connection open to Respond.io, simply call the previously defined method to retrieve data from the Contacts entity in Respond.io.

//disply the result of our 'find' method
String email = dao.findEmailByIdentifier("id:438180634");
System.out.println(email);

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