Query Cvent Data in ColdFusion

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

Create a JDBC Data Source for Cvent 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:cvent: and is followed by the connection properties in a semicolon-separated list of name=value pairs.

     Before you can authenticate to Cvent, you must create a workspace and an OAuth application.

     Creating a Workspace

     To create a workspace:

     1. Sign into Cvent and navigate to App Switcher (the blue button in the upper right corner of the page) >> Admin.
     2. In the Admin menu, navigate to Integrations >> REST API.
     3. A new tab launches for Developer Management. Click on Manage API Access in the new tab.
     4. Create a Workspace and name it. Select the scopes you would like your developers to have access to. Scopes control what data domains the developer can access.
        • Choose All to allow developers to choose any scope, and any future scopes added to the REST API.
        • Choose Custom to limit the scopes developers can choose for their OAuth apps to selected scopes. To access all tables exposed by the driver, you need to set the following scopes:

          event/attendees:read	event/attendees:write	event/contacts:read
          event/contacts:write	event/custom-fields:read	event/custom-fields:write
          event/events:read	event/events:write	event/sessions:delete
          event/sessions:read	event/sessions:write	event/speakers:delete
          event/speakers:read	event/speakers:write	budget/budget-items:read
          budget/budget-items:write	exhibitor/exhibitors:read	exhibitor/exhibitors:write
          survey/surveys:read	survey/surveys:write

     Creating an OAuth Application

     After you have set up a Workspace and invited them, developers can sign up and create a custom OAuth app. See the Creating a Custom OAuth Application section in the Help documentation for more information.

     Connecting to Cvent

     After creating an OAuth application, set the following connection properties to connect to Cvent:

     • InitiateOAuth: GETANDREFRESH. Used to automatically get and refresh the OAuthAccessToken.
     • OAuthClientId: The Client ID associated with the OAuth application. You can find this on the Applications page in the Cvent Developer Portal.
     • OAuthClientSecret: The Client secret associated with the OAuth application. You can find this on the Applications page in the Cvent Developer Portal.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Cvent JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.cvent.jar

     Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

     A typical JDBC URL is below:

     jdbc:cvent:OAuthClientId=MyOAuthClientId;OAuthClientSecret=MyOAuthClientSecret;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
   • Driver Class: Enter the driver class. The driver class is cdata.jdbc.cvent.CventDriver.
   • 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 Cvent data source in the Actions column. After reporting a status of OK, the Cvent data source is ready for use.

Execute Queries

The cfquery tag can pass SQL statements to Cvent, including INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE.. 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.

Below is the equivalent in CFScript:

<cfscript>
result = queryExecute(
  "SELECT * FROM Events WHERE Virtual = ?", 
  [
    { value="true", cfsqltype="cf_sql_varchar" }
  ],
  { datasource="CDataCvent" }
);

writeDump( var= result );
</cfscript> 

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