Introduction

SeeDSN is utility that I’ve been using internally with our SeeFusion customers for years in order to assist with configuring JDBC wrapped datasources that can be monitored via SeeFusion.  The utility was originally developed for Webapper by Daryl Banttari, but it was never officially released to the public – until today.  Recently I was on location with a Webapper customer in New Mexico assisting with installation and configuration of SeeFusion when the lead technical resource, Robert Aguayo, suggested the idea of integrating SeeDSN directly into the ColdFusion Administrator interface.  It was Robert’s suggestion that motivated me to revisit the utility, clean up some of the technical aspects, and publicly release it as a ColdFusion Administrator extension for SeeFusion users/customers.

What is SeeDSN?

SeeDSN is a web-based administrative utility for use with SeeFusion.  Using SeeDSN, administrators of ColdFusion instances configured with SeeFusion can easily wrap/unwrap datasources with the JDBC wrapper required for reporting query information within SeeFusion.

Main Features

• One-click functionality of backing up an existing ColdFusion datasource before applying the JDBC wrapper required for proper reporting to SeeFusion.
• One-click functionality of restoring ColdFusion datasources to its original unwrapped configuration and removing the JDBC wrapper.
• Form-driven configuration of additional JDBC connection string arguments relevant to datasources wrapped for use with SeeFusion.
• Ability to verify datasources in the same manner that they are verified from the ColdFusion Administrator Datasources page.
• Integrates SeeDSN and SeeFusion directly with your existing ColdFusion Administrator interface.

 

Requirements

• ColdFusion 7+
• SeeFusion

 

Installation

First, you’ll need to download the distribution here (http://www.seefusion.com/seedsn_v1.1.zip).  Once you’ve downloaded it, you’ll need to open it up and follow the steps below.  These directions can also be found in the readme.txt file bundled with the distribution.

1. Copy the “seedsn” folder in this archive directly to your /CFIDE/Administrator/ folder.Â
   This means that when you’re finished, you should have a new “seedsn“ folder in your
   /CFIDE/Administrator/ folder (i.e. /CFIDE/Administrator/seedsn/).
2. If you’re using ColdFusion 8+, move “/CFIDE/Administrator/seedsn/custommenu.xml” to “/CFIDE/Administrator/custommenu.xml“.
3. If you’re using ColdFusion 7.*, move “/CFIDE/Administrator/seedsn/extensionscustom.cfm” to “/CFIDE/Administrator/extensionscustom.cfm“.
4. Edit “/CFIDE/Administrator/seedsn/Application.cfm” and replace the value of the “request.urlSeeFusionRedirect” variable with the fully-qualified URL to your existing SeeFusion Flex dashboard interface.

That’s it!  You’ve just installed SeeDSN, and now you can access it directly from your ColdFusion Administrator.

Using SeeDSN

Once you have completed the steps outlined above, you’ll be able to access both SeeDSN and SeeFusion directly from within your ColdFusion Administrator interface.

Simply fire up your preferred web browser and log in to your existing ColdFusion Administrator.  Once you’ve logged in, you should notice a new group of menu options towards the bottom of the left-side navigation menu.

ColdFusion 8+
You should see a new navigation menu section labeled “SEEFUSION” which, when expanded, contains two links.
- “Flex Dashboard” will link to the SeeFusion Flex dashboard as indicate by the URL you supplied during step 3 above.
- “Datasource Wrapper” will link to the SeeDSN JDBC wrapping utility that will assist you with your datasource wrapping needs.

ColdFusion 7.*
You should see a new navigation menu section labeled “CUSTOM EXTENSIONS” which, when expanded, contains two links.
- “SeeFusion Flex Dashboard” will link to the SeeFusion Flex dashboard as indicate by the URL you supplied during step 3 above.
- “SeeFusion Datasource Wrapper” will link to the SeeDSN JDBC wrapping utility that will assist you with your datasource wrapping needs.