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

Create a DAO for the SerpApi AmazonSearch 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 MyAmazonSearchDAO {
  //request specific data from SerpApi (String type is used for simplicity)
  @SqlQuery("SELECT Title FROM AmazonSearch WHERE SearchQuery = :searchQuery")
  String findTitleBySearchQuery(@Bind("searchQuery") String searchQuery);

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

Open a Connection to SerpApi

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

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

SerpAPI API Profile Settings

SerpAPI uses API key authentication. To obtain an API key:

1. Sign in to your SerpAPI account at https://serpapi.com
2. Navigate to the API Key page at https://serpapi.com/manage-api-key
3. Copy your private API key

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 SerpAPI private API key.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\SerpAPI.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key_here';

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\SerpAPI.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key_here';");
MyAmazonSearchDAO dao = dbi.open(MyAmazonSearchDAO.class);

//do stuff with the DAO

dao.close();

Read SerpApi Data

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

//disply the result of our 'find' method
String title = dao.findTitleBySearchQuery("mechanical keyboard");
System.out.println(title);

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