Establishing a Connection

Creating a JDBC Data Source

You can create a JDBC data source to connect from your Java application. Creating a JDBC data source based on the CData JDBC Driver for Bullhorn CRM consists of three basic steps:

Add the driver JAR file to the classpath. The JAR file is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory. Note that the .lic file must be located in the same folder as the JAR file.

Provide the driver class. For example:

cdata.jdbc.bullhorncrm.BullhornCRMDriver

Provide the JDBC URL. For example:
```
jdbc:bullhorncrm:DataCenterCode=CLS33;OAuthClientId=myoauthclientid;OAuthClientSecret=myoauthclientsecret;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;

or

jdbc:cdata:bullhorncrm:DataCenterCode=CLS33;OAuthClientId=myoauthclientid;OAuthClientSecret=myoauthclientsecret;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;
```
The second format above can be used whenever there is a conflict in your application between drivers using the same URL format to ensure you are using the CData driver. The URL must start with either "jdbc:bullhorncrm:" or "jdbc:cdata:bullhorncrm:" and can include any of the connection properties in name-value pairs separated with semicolons.

Connecting to Bullhorn CRM

Begin by providing your Bullhorn CRM account credentials. Set DataCenterCode to the data center code that responds to your data center. Refer to the list here.

If you are uncertain about your data center code, codes like CLS2, CLS21, etc. are cluster IDs that are contained in a user's browser URL (address bar) once they are logged in.

Example: https://cls21.bullhornstaffing.com/BullhornSTAFFING/MainFrame.jsp?#no-ba... indicates that the logged in user is on CLS21.

Note: If you specify callback URL value that contains "/" character at the end, e.g., http://localhost:33333/ you must specify exactly the same value. It must match the callback URL you specify in your application settings.
Adding or removing any character of this parameter results in an error.

Authenticating to Bullhorn CRM (OAuth)

Bullhorn CRM uses the OAuth 2.0 authentication standard.

In all scenarios, to authenticate using OAuth, you must create and configure a custom OAuth application. See Creating a Custom OAuth App for more information.

Desktop Applications

Follow the steps below to authenticate with the credentials for a custom OAuth application.

Scenario 1: Verifier Code

Making any changes to your OAuth application (such as the CallbackURL) requires reaching out to Bullhorn CRM directly, which can be a time-consuming process. So, we highly recommended that you instead use an OAuthVerifier to connect. To obtain a verifier, you also need an OAuth Authorization URL.

Retrieving an OAuth Verifier Code

Construct your authorization URL as follows:
https://<authurl for your data center>/oauth/authorize?client_id=<your OAuth client id>&response_type=code

For example, if you had data center "CLS5", the authentication URL is https://auth.bullhornstaffing.com/oauth/authorize?client_id=your_client_id&response_type=code.

Please refer to the list here to determine the authentication URL for your data center.

Next, retrieve the OAuth verifier code:

Open your authorization URL in a browser. Log in and grant permissions to the driver. You are then redirected to the callback URL, which contains the verifier code.
Save the value of the verifier code.

Get and Refresh the OAuth Access Token

After setting the following, you are ready to connect:

OAuthVerifier: Set this to the OAuth Verifier code obtained previously.
DataCenterCode: Set this to the respective data center your account is connected with. Find the list of the data centers here. For example, CLS33.
OAuthClientId: Set this to the client Id assigned when you registered your application.
OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client secret assigned when you registered your application.
InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.

When you connect the driver opens the OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application. The driver then completes the OAuth process:

Extracts the access token from the callback URL and authenticates requests.
Obtains a new access token when the old one expires.
Saves OAuth values in OAuthSettingsLocation. These stored values persist across connections.

Scenario 2: Custom CallbackURL

You also have the option of requesting a custom callback URL (for example, http://localhost:33333) from Bullhorn CRM. If you have been provided with a custom CallbackURL, you can set the following to connect to data:

CallbackURL: Set this to the custom callback URL provided by Bullhorn CRM.
DataCenterCode: Set this to the respective data center your account is connected with. Find the list of the data centers here. For example, CLS33.
OAuthClientId: Set this to the client Id assigned when you registered your application.
OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client secret assigned when you registered your application.
InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.

The driver then completes the OAuth process:

The process finalizes with the access token returned from the Bullhorn CRM API.
Refreshes the access token when it expires.
Saves OAuth values in OAuthSettingsLocation to be persisted across connections.

Web Applications

When connecting via a Web application, you need to register a custom OAuth application with Bullhorn CRM. See Creating a Custom OAuth App. You can then use the driver to get and manage the OAuth token values. Get an OAuth Access Token

Set the following connection properties to obtain the OAuthAccessToken:

OAuthClientId: Set this to the Client Id provided by Bullhorn CRM.
OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the Client Secret provided by Bullhorn CRM.

You can then call stored procedures to complete the OAuth exchange:

Call the GetOAuthAuthorizationURL stored procedure. Set the AuthMode input to WEB and set the CallbackURL to the Redirect URI. The stored procedure returns the URL to the OAuth endpoint.
Open the URL, log in, and authorize the application. You are redirected back to the callback URL.
Call the GetOAuthAccessToken stored procedure. Set the AuthMode input to WEB. Set the Verifier input to the "code" parameter in the query string of the callback URL.

Refresh the OAuth Access Token

You can set InitiateOAuth to REFRESH to automatically refresh the OAuth access token when it expires, or you can call the RefreshOAuthAccessToken stored procedure to refresh the token manually.

Automatic Refresh

To refresh the token with InitiateOAuth, set the following on the first data connection:

OAuthAccessToken: Set this to the access token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
InitiateOAuth: Set this to REFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
OAuthSettingsLocation: Set this to the path where the driver saves the OAuth values. These values persist cross connections.
OAuthClientId: Set this to the client Id provided by Bullhorn CRM.
OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client secret provided by Bullhorn CRM.
OAuthRefreshToken: Set this to the refresh token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.

On subsequent data connections, set the following:

InitiateOAuth
OAuthSettingsLocation

Manual Refresh

You can use the RefreshOAuthAccessToken stored procedure to manually refresh the OAuthAccessToken. Call the stored procedure after the ExpiresIn parameter value returned by GetOAuthAccessToken has elapsed. You need the following connection properties to be set:

OAuthClientId: Set this to the client Id provided by Bullhorn CRM.
OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client secret provided by Bullhorn CRM.

You can then call RefreshOAuthAccessToken with the OAuthRefreshToken paraemter set to the OAuthRefreshToken returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.

Headless Machines

To configure the driver to use OAuth with a user account on a headless machine, you need to authenticate on another device that has an internet browser.

Choose one of these two options:
- Option 1: Obtain the OAuthVerifier value as described in "Obtain and Exchange a Verifier Code" below.
- Option 2: Install the driver on another machine and transfer the OAuth authentication values after you authenticate through the usual browser-based flow, as described in "Transfer OAuth Settings" below.
Then configure the driver to automatically refresh the access token from the headless machine.

Option 1: Obtain and Exchange a Verifier Code

Set the following properties on the headless machine:

DataCenterCode: Set this to the data center code which responds to your data center. Refer to the list here.
InitiateOAuth: Set this to OFF.
OAuthClientId: Set this to the client Id provided by Bullhorn CRM.
OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client secret provided by Bullhorn CRM.

You can then follow the steps below to authenticate from another machine and obtain the OAuthVerifier connection property.

Call the GetOAuthAuthorizationURL stored procedure with the CallbackURL input parameter set to the exact Redirect URI.
Open the returned URL in a browser. Log in and grant permissions to the driver. You are then redirected to the callback URL, which contains the verifier code.
Save the value of the verifier code. You will set this in the OAuthVerifier connection property.
Save the REST URL. You will set this in the RestUrl property.

On the headless machine, set the following connection properties to obtain the OAuth authentication values:

OAuthClientId: Set this to the consumer key provided by Bullhorn CRM.
OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the consumer secret provided by Bullhorn CRM.
DataCenterCode: Set this to the data center code which responds to your data center.
RestUrl: Set this to the URL returned by the GetOAuthAccessToken stored procedure.
OAuthVerifier: Set this to the verifier code.
OAuthSettingsLocation: Set this to persist the encrypted OAuth authentication values to the specified file.
InitiateOAuth: Set this to REFRESH.

After the OAuth settings file is generated, set the following properties to connect to data:

OAuthClientId: Set this to the consumer key provided by Bullhorn CRM.
OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the consumer secret provided by Bullhorn CRM.
DataCenterCode: Set this to the data center code which responds to your data center.
RestUrl: Set this to the URL returned by the GetOAuthAccessToken stored procedure.
OAuthSettingsLocation: Set this to the file containing the encrypted OAuth authentication values. Make sure this file gives read and write permissions to the provider to enable the automatic refreshing of the access token.
InitiateOAuth: Set this to REFRESH.

Option 2: Transfer OAuth Settings

Follow the steps below to install the driver on another machine, authenticate, and then transfer the resulting OAuth values.

On a second machine, install the driver and connect with the following properties set:

DataCenterCode: Set this to the data center code which responds to your data center.
RestUrl: Set this to the URL returned by the GetOAuthAccessToken stored procedure.
OAuthSettingsLocation: Set this to a writable text file.
InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH.
OAuthClientId: Set this to the client Id assigned when you registered your application.
OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client secret assigned when you registered your application.
CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI. Note: A different callback url must be explicitly requested from the Bullhorn CRM staff. For example, http://localhost:33333/.

Test the connection to authenticate. The resulting authentication values are written, encrypted, to the path specified by OAuthSettingsLocation. After you have successfully tested the connection, copy the OAuth settings file to your headless machine. On the headless machine, set the following connection properties to connect to data:

RestUrl: Set this to the URL returned by the GetOAuthAccessToken stored procedure.
DataCenterCode: Set this to the data center code which responds to your data center.
InitiateOAuth: Set this to REFRESH.
OAuthClientId: Set this to the consumer key provided by Bullhorn CRM.
OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the consumer secret provided by Bullhorn CRM.
OAuthSettingsLocation: Set this to the path to your OAuth settings file. Make sure this file gives read and write permissions to the driver to enable the automatic refreshing of the access token.