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

Create a DAO for the ZenRows AmazonDiscovery 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 MyAmazonDiscoveryDAO {
  //request specific data from ZenRows (String type is used for simplicity)
  @SqlQuery("SELECT ProductName FROM AmazonDiscovery WHERE Query = :query")
  String findProductNameByQuery(@Bind("query") String query);

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

Open a Connection to ZenRows

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

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

ZenRows API Profile Settings

To use the ZenRows API, you need to obtain an API key from your ZenRows account. Navigate to the ZenRows dashboard at app.zenrows.com and copy your API key from the account settings.

After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

• AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
• APIKey: Set this to your ZenRows API key.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

jdbc:api:Profile=C:\profiles\ZenRows.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\ZenRows.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key';");
MyAmazonDiscoveryDAO dao = dbi.open(MyAmazonDiscoveryDAO.class);

//do stuff with the DAO

dao.close();

Read ZenRows Data

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

//disply the result of our 'find' method
String productName = dao.findProductNameByQuery("laptop");
System.out.println(productName);

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