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

Create a DAO for the TimeCamp GroupUsers 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 MyGroupUsersDAO {
  //request specific data from TimeCamp (String type is used for simplicity)
  @SqlQuery("SELECT Email FROM GroupUsers WHERE GroupId = :groupId")
  String findEmailByGroupId(@Bind("groupId") String groupId);

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

Open a Connection to TimeCamp

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

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

TimeCamp API Profile Settings

TimeCamp uses token-based authentication. To obtain an API Token:

1. Log in to your TimeCamp account at https://app.timecamp.com
2. Click your profile avatar in the top-right corner
3. Select Profile Settings
4. Copy the API token shown at the bottom of the page

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

• AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.

Set the following in the ProfileSettings connection property:

• APIKey: Set this to your TimeCamp API token.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\TimeCamp.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_token';

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\TimeCamp.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_token';");
MyGroupUsersDAO dao = dbi.open(MyGroupUsersDAO.class);

//do stuff with the DAO

dao.close();

Read TimeCamp Data

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

//disply the result of our 'find' method
String email = dao.findEmailByGroupId("12345");
System.out.println(email);

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