ETL Act CRM in Oracle Data Integrator

Leverage existing skills by using the JDBC standard to read and write to Act CRM: Through drop-in integration into ETL tools like Oracle Data Integrator (ODI), the CData JDBC Driver for Act CRM connects real-time Act CRM data to your data warehouse, business intelligence, and Big Data technologies.

JDBC connectivity enables you to work with Act CRM just as you would any other database in ODI. As with an RDBMS, you can use the driver to connect directly to the Act CRM APIs in real time instead of working with flat files.

This article covers a JDBC-based ETL -- Act CRM to Oracle. After reverse engineering a data model of Act CRM entities, you will create a mapping and select a data loading strategy -- since the driver supports SQL-92, this last step can easily be accomplished by selecting the built-in SQL to SQL Loading Knowledge Module.

Install the Driver

To install the driver, copy the driver JAR (cdata.jdbc.actcrm.jar) and .lic file (cdata.jdbc.actcrm.lic), located in the installation folder, into the ODI appropriate directory:

• UNIX/Linux without Agent: ~/.odi/oracledi/userlib
• UNIX/Linux with Agent: ~/.odi/oracledi/userlib and $ODI_HOME/odi/agent/lib
• Windows without Agent: %APPDATA%\Roaming\odi\oracledi\userlib
• Windows with Agent: %APPDATA%\odi\oracledi\userlib and %APPDATA%\odi\agent\lib

Restart ODI to complete the installation.

Reverse Engineer a Model

Reverse engineering the model retrieves metadata about the driver's relational view of Act CRM data. After reverse engineering, you can query real-time Act CRM data and create mappings based on Act CRM tables.

1. In ODI, connect to your repository and click New -> Model and Topology Objects. 👁 Create a New Model
   
2. On the Model screen of the resulting dialog, enter the following information:
   • Name: Enter ActCRM.
   • Technology: Select Generic SQL (for ODI Version 12.2+, select Microsoft SQL Server).
   • Logical Schema: Enter ActCRM.
   • Context: Select Global.
   👁 Configuring the Model
   
3. On the Data Server screen of the resulting dialog, enter the following information:
   • Name: Enter ActCRM.
   • Driver List: Select Oracle JDBC Driver.
   • Driver: Enter cdata.jdbc.actcrm.ActCRMDriver
   • URL: Enter the JDBC URL containing the connection string.

     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.)
     

     Below is a typical connection string:

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

   👁 Configuring the Data Server
   
4. On the Physical Schema screen, enter the following information:
   • Name: Select from the Drop Down menu.
   • Database (Catalog): Enter CData.
   • Owner (Schema): If you select a Schema for Act CRM, enter the Schema selected, otherwise enter ActCRM.
   • Database (Work Catalog): Enter CData.
   • Owner (Work Schema): If you select a Schema for Act CRM, enter the Schema selected, otherwise enter ActCRM.
   👁 Configuring the Physical Schema
   
5. In the opened model click Reverse Engineer to retrieve the metadata for Act CRM tables. 👁 Reverse Engineer the Model
   

Edit and Save Act CRM Data

After reverse engineering you can now work with Act CRM data in ODI. To edit and save Act CRM data, expand the Models accordion in the Designer navigator, right-click a table, and click Data. Click Refresh to pick up any changes to the data. Click Save Changes when you are finished making changes. 👁 Viewing the data.

Create an ETL Project

Follow the steps below to create an ETL from Act CRM. You will load Activities entities into the sample data warehouse included in the ODI Getting Started VM.

1. Open SQL Developer and connect to your Oracle database. Right-click the node for your database in the Connections pane and click new SQL Worksheet.

   Alternatively you can use SQLPlus. From a command prompt enter the following:

   sqlplus / as sysdba
   

2. Enter the following query to create a new target table in the sample data warehouse, which is in the ODI_DEMO schema. The following query defines a few columns that match the Activities table in Act CRM:

   CREATE TABLE ODI_DEMO.TRG_ACTIVITIES (SUBJECT NUMBER(20,0),ActivityDisplayName VARCHAR2(255));
   

3. In ODI expand the Models accordion in the Designer navigator and double-click the Sales Administration node in the ODI_DEMO folder. The model is opened in the Model Editor.
4. Click Reverse Engineer. The TRG_ACTIVITIES table is added to the model.
5. Right-click the Mappings node in your project and click New Mapping. Enter a name for the mapping and clear the Create Empty Dataset option. The Mapping Editor is displayed.
6. Drag the TRG_ACTIVITIES table from the Sales Administration model onto the mapping.
7. Drag the Activities table from the Act CRM model onto the mapping.
8. Click the source connector point and drag to the target connector point. The Attribute Matching dialog is displayed. For this example, use the default options. The target expressions are then displayed in the properties for the target columns.
9. Open the Physical tab of the Mapping Editor and click ACTIVITIES_AP in TARGET_GROUP.
10. In the ACTIVITIES_AP properties, select LKM SQL to SQL (Built-In) on the Loading Knowledge Module tab. 👁 SQL-based access to Act CRM enables you to use standard database-to-database knowledge modules.
    

You can then run the mapping to load Act CRM data into Oracle.