Import Real-Time Vercel Data via ODBC in ColdFusion to Build Applications

Dibyendu Datta
Dibyendu Datta
Lead Technology Evangelist
Use CData ODBC drivers to import and use Vercel data in ColdFusion.

Adobe ColdFusion is a web and mobile application development platform. It uses its own scripting language, ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML), to create data-driven websites as well as generate remote services, such as REST. When ColdFusion is paired with the CData API Driver for ODBC, you can link your ColdFusion web and mobile applications to operational Vercel data. This allows for your applications to be more robust and complete. This article details how to use the ODBC driver to create a table populated with Vercel data from within a ColdFusion markup file.

To follow along with this tutorial, you need to install the CData API Driver for ODBC and Adobe ColdFusion.

Configuring the Connection

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

Using API Key Authentication

Vercel uses Bearer token authentication. You can use either a personal access token or an OAuth access token as the API key.

To obtain a personal access token:

  1. Log into your Vercel account at https://vercel.com/
  2. Navigate to Account Settings > Tokens.
  3. Click Create Token, enter a name and expiration, and click Create.
  4. Copy the generated token (it will only be shown once).

After obtaining your token, set the following connection properties:

  • AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
  • APIKey: Set this to your Vercel personal access token or OAuth access token.

Example Connection String

Profile=C:\profiles\Vercel.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;APIKey=your_access_token;

Working with Teams

Many Vercel resources are scoped to a team. To scope all requests to a specific team, set the TeamId connection property to your team's ID. You can find your team ID by querying the Teams table or from the Vercel dashboard. Alternatively, you can specify TeamId in your SQL queries using the WHERE clause where supported.

Connecting to Vercel

Once the authentication is configured, you can connect to Vercel and query data from any of the available tables such as Projects, Deployments, Teams, and Domains.

Adding a Data Source and Creating a Table

After creating a DSN, follow the steps below to add a new data source, test our connection to it, create a ColdFusion markup file, and, finally, import Vercel Data and display it in a table in ColdFusion:

  1. From the ColdFusion administrator interface, choose Data & Services.
  2. Here, click "Add New Data Source". The data source name can be any name, provided it conforms to the ColdFusion variable naming conventions. For our ODBC driver, choose "ODBC Socket", then click the "Add" button.
  3. From the ODBC DSN Dropdown menu select CData Vercel Sys. Under the Advanced Settings section, leave the Connection String blank. Note that any properties specified in this input field will override the ones specified in the DSN Configuration.
  4. Now, test the connection by pressing the check mark to the left of the CDataVercelODBC data source you just created. When the data source reports an "OK" status, it is ready for use.
  5. Next, create a new ColdFusion Markup file (.cfm) and place it in the wwwroot directory ("C:\ColdFusion2021\cfusion\wwwroot") for ColdFusion.

    The following code queries the data source:

                
            <cfquery name="VercelQuery" dataSource="CDataVercelODBC"> 
              SELECT * FROM User 
            </cfquery> 
        
    And a CFTable can be used to quickly output the table in HTML:
                
              <cftable  
              query = "VercelQuery" 
              border = "1" 
              colHeaders 
              colSpacing = "2" 
              headerLines = "2" 
              HTMLTable 
              maxRows = "500" 
              startRow = "1"> 
    
              <cfcol header="<b></b>" align="Left" width=2 text=""/> 
    
              <cfcol header="<b></b>" align="Left" width=15 text=""/> 
    
              ...
    
            </cftable> 
        
    Full code, including the HTML portion is available below:
                
            <html> 
            <head><title>CData Software | Vercel User Table Demo </title></head> 
            <body> 
            <cfoutput>#ucase("Vercel User Table Demo")#</cfoutput> 
            <cfquery name="VercelQuery" dataSource="CDataVercelODBC"> 
    
              SELECT * FROM User 
    
            </cfquery> 
            <cftable  
              query = "VercelQuery" 
              border = "1" 
              colHeaders 
              colSpacing = "2" 
              headerLines = "2" 
              HTMLTable 
              maxRows = "500" 
              startRow = "1"> 
              <cfcol header="<b></b>" align="Left" width=2 text=""/> 
    
              <cfcol header="<b></b>" align="Left" width=15 text=""/> 
    
              ...
    
            </cftable> 
            </body> 
    
            </html>  
        
  6. Finally, run the code in a browser. It produces a table populated with Vercel data!

As a note, the CData ODBC Drivers also support parameterized queries using the cfqueryparam element. For example:

SELECT * FROM Account WHERE name =  

Get Started Today

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData ODBC Driver for Vercel and start building Vercel-connected applications with Adobe ColdFusion. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.

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