Query Vimeo Data in ColdFusion

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Write standard ColdFusion data access code to connect to Vimeo data.

The CData JDBC driver for Vimeo seamlessly integrates connectivity to Vimeo data with the rapid development tools in ColdFusion. This article shows how to connect to Vimeo data in ColdFusion and query Vimeo tables.

Create a JDBC Data Source for Vimeo in ColdFusion

The JDBC data source enables you to execute SQL from standard ColdFusion tags like cfquery and CFScript like executeQuery.

  1. Copy the driver JAR and .lic file from the installation directory onto the ColdFusion classpath. For example, copy the files into C:\MyColdFusionDirectory\cfusion\wwwroot\WEB-INF\lib. Or, open the Java and JVM page in the ColdFusion Administrator and enter the path to the files in the ColdFusion Class Path box.

    The JAR and license for the driver are located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.

    Restart the server after this step.

  2. Add the driver as a data source:

    From the ColdFusion administrator interface, expand the Data & Services node and click Data Sources. In the Add New Data Source section, enter a name for the data source and select Other in the Driver menu.

  3. Populate the driver properties:

    • JDBC URL: Enter connection properties in the JDBC URL. The JDBC URL begins with jdbc:api: and is followed by the connection properties in a semicolon-separated list of name=value pairs.

      Vimeo is a professional video hosting platform. The Vimeo API uses personal access tokens (bearer tokens) to enable secure access to video metadata, user information, channels, groups, categories, and related resources.

      Using API Key Authentication

      To authenticate to the Vimeo API, you will need to provide a personal access token. To obtain your access token:

      1. Log in to your Vimeo account at https://vimeo.com
      2. Navigate to https://developer.vimeo.com/apps
      3. Create a new app or select an existing app
      4. Under "Personal Access Tokens", click "Generate" to create a new token
      5. Select the required scopes: public and private for read access
      6. Copy the generated token

      After obtaining your access token, set the following connection properties:

      • AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
      • APIKey: Set this to your Vimeo personal access token.

      Example connection string

      Profile=C:\profiles\Vimeo.apip;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_personal_access_token';
      

      Built-in Connection String Designer

      For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Vimeo 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 typical JDBC URL is below:

      jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\Vimeo.apip;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_personal_access_token';
    • Driver Class: Enter the driver class. The driver class is cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver.
    • Driver Name: Enter a user-defined name for the driver.
    • Username: Enter the username used to authenticate.
    • Password: Enter the password used to authenticate.

You can now test the connection by enabling the CData Vimeo data source in the Actions column. After reporting a status of OK, the Vimeo data source is ready for use.

Execute Queries

The cfquery tag can pass SQL statements to Vimeo. Use the cfqueryparam tag to create parameterized queries and prevent SQL injection through the query string.

Note: To use the cfquery and cfscript, create a .cfm file. Inside the .cfm file, write the code to execute the query (see below). Place the file directly in the root directory of your web server (e.g., wwwroot in Adobe ColdFusion). Restart the service after placing the file for the changes to take effect.


<cfquery name="APIQuery" dataSource="CDataAPI">
  SELECT * FROM Videos WHERE UserUri = <cfqueryparam value="#UserUri#" cfsqltype="cf_sql_varchar">
</cfquery>
<cfdump var="#APIQuery#">

Below is the equivalent in CFScript:


<cfscript>
result = queryExecute(
  "SELECT * FROM Videos WHERE UserUri = ?", 
  [
    { value="/users/12345678", cfsqltype="cf_sql_varchar" }
  ],
  { datasource="CDataAPI" }
);

writeDump( var= result );
</cfscript> 

You can then make requests to your .cfm like the following:

http://MyServer:8500/query.cfm?UserUri=/users/12345678

Ready to get started?

Connect to live data from Vimeo with the API Driver

Connect to Vimeo