Integrate with Act CRM Data in JReport Designer

The CData JDBC Driver for Act CRM data enables access to live data from dashboards and reports as if Act CRM were a relational database, allowing you to query Act CRM data using familiar SQL queries. This article shows how to connect to Act CRM data as a JDBC data source and create reports based on Act CRM data in JReport Designer.

Connect to Act CRM Data

1. Edit C:\JReport\Designer\bin\setenv.bat to add the location of the JAR file to the ADDCLASSPATH variable:

   ...
   set ADDCLASSPATH=%JAVAHOME%\lib\tools.jar;C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for Act CRM 2016\lib\cdata.jdbc.actcrm.jar;
   ...
   

2. Create a new data source by clicking File New Data Source.
3. In the resulting dialog, create a name for the data source (CData JDBC Driver for Act CRM), select JDBC, and click OK.
4. In the Get JDBC Connection Information dialog you will configure your connection to the JDBC driver:
   • Driver: Be sure that the Driver box is checked and fill in the name of the class for the driver:

     cdata.jdbc.actcrm.ActCRMDriver

   • URL: Enter the JDBC URL. This starts with jdbc:actcrm: and is followed by a semicolon-separated list of connection properties.

     The and properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid Act! user credentials. In addition to the authentication values, see the following:

     • Connecting to Act! Premium

       In addition to the authentication values, the to Act! is also required; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/.

       Additionally, you must specify the you will connect to. This is found by going to the About Act! Premium menu of your account, at the top right of the page, in the ? menu. Use the Database Name in the window that appears.

     • Connecting to Act! Premium Cloud

       To connect to your Act! Premium Cloud account, you also need to specify the property. This property is found in the URL address of the Cloud account; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/ActCloudName/.

     Note that retrieving ActCRM metadata can be expensive. It is advised that you set the property to store the metadata locally.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.actcrm.jar
     

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

     👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)
     

     When you configure the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

     Below is a typical JDBC URL:

     jdbc:actcrm:URL=https://myActCRMserver.com;User=myUser;Password=myPassword;ActDatabase=MyDB;

   • User: The username to authenticate with; typically left blank.
   • Password: The password to authenticate with; typically left blank.
   👁 Configuring the connection to the JDBC Driver (Salesforce is shown.)
   

5. In the Add Table dialog, select the tables you wish to include in your report (or in future reports using this data source) and click Add.

   👁 Adding Tables. (Salesforce is shown.)
   

   Click Done once the dialog has completed loading the tables.

6. In the Catalog Browser, you can create the queries that you will use to populate your reports. You can do this now, or after you create your report. In either case, expand () the data source (CData JDBC Driver for Act CRM), right-click on Queries, and select Add Query. 👁 Adding a query for data to be used in the report. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
7. In the Add Table/View/Query dialog, expand () the JDBC URL and Tables and select the table(s) you wish to use in the query and click OK. 👁 Selecting a table for the query. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
8. In the Query Editor dialog, you can select the columns you wish to include or simply click the SQL button and manually input your own query. For example:

   SELECT ActivityDisplayName, Subject FROM Activities
   

   👁 Editing the query. (Salesforce is shown.)
   

   With the query built, click OK to close the Query Editor dialog. At this point you are ready to add Act CRM data to a new or existing report.

   NOTE: Now that the query is built, you can create a Business View based on the query. With a Business View, you can create Web reports or library components based on the query. For more information on this, refer to the JReport tutorials.

Add Act CRM Data to a Report

You are now ready to create a report with Act CRM data.

1. Create a new report (File New Page Report) or open the Chart Wizard for an existing report.
2. Select the Query (or create a new one; see above).
👁 Selecting the query to use. (Salesforce is shown.)

3. Assign a Category and Value for the chart from the columns in your Query and click Finish.
👁 Assigning columns to define the chart. (Salesforce is shown.)

4. Click the View tab for your report to see the chart.