Process & Analyze Dynamics 365 Business Central Data in Databricks (AWS)

Databricks is a cloud-based service that provides data processing capabilities through Apache Spark. When paired with the CData JDBC Driver, customers can use Databricks to perform data engineering and data science on live Dynamics 365 Business Central data. This article explains how to host the CData JDBC Driver in AWS, as well as connect to and process live Dynamics 365 Business Central data in Databricks.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData JDBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Dynamics 365 Business Central data. When you issue complex SQL queries to Dynamics 365 Business Central, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Dynamics 365 Business Central and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (often SQL functions and JOIN operations). Its built-in dynamic metadata querying allows you to work with and analyze Dynamics 365 Business Central data using native data types.

Install the CData JDBC Driver in Databricks

To work with live Dynamics 365 Business Central data in Databricks, install the driver on your Databricks cluster.

1. Navigate to your Databricks administration screen and select the target cluster.
2. On the Libraries tab, click "Install New."
3. Select "Upload" as the Library Source and "Jar" as the Library Type.
4. Upload the JDBC JAR file (cdata.jdbc.d365businesscentral.jar) from the installation location (typically C:\Program Files\CData[product_name]\lib).

👁 Loading the JDBC JAR File into AWS

Access Dynamics 365 Business Central Data in your Notebook: Python

With the JAR file installed, we are ready to work with live Dynamics 365 Business Central data in Databricks. Start by creating a new notebook in your workspace. Name the notebook, select Python as the language (though Scala is available as well), and choose the cluster where you installed the JDBC driver. When the notebook launches, we can configure the connection, query Dynamics 365 Business Central, and create a basic report.

Configure the Connection to Dynamics 365 Business Central

Connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central by referencing the JDBC Driver class and constructing a connection string to use in the JDBC URL. Additionally, you will need to set the property in the JDBC URL (unless you are using a Beta driver). You can view the licensing file included in the installation for information on how to set this property.

Step 1: Connection Information

driver = "cdata.jdbc.d365businesscentral.D365BusinessCentralDriver"
url = "jdbc:d365businesscentral:RTK=5246...;OrganizationUrl=https://myaccount.financials.dynamics.com/;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;"

Built-in Connection String Designer

For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Dynamics 365 Business Central JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

java -jar cdata.jdbc.d365businesscentral.jar

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

To authenticate to Dynamics 365 Business Central, you must select an AuthScheme and provide the required properties (OAuth by default).

All Methods

Specify the . If you have multiple companies in your organization, you must also specify the to indicate which company you would like to connect to. does not need to be specified if you have only one company.

Access Key

To authenticate with an Access Key, set AuthScheme to "AccessKey" and provide the and properties.

To obtain the and values, navigate to the Users page in Dynamics 365 Business Central and then click on Edit. The User Name and Web Service Access Key values are what you will enter as the and connection string properties. Note that the User Name is not your email address. It is a shortened user name.

If you wish to authenticate through other methods, refer to the Help documentation.

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

Load Dynamics 365 Business Central Data

Once you configure the connection, you can load Dynamics 365 Business Central data as a dataframe using the CData JDBC Driver and the connection information.

Step 2: Reading the data

remote_table = spark.read.format ( "jdbc" ) \
	.option ( "driver" , driver) \
	.option ( "url" , url) \
	.option ( "dbtable" , "Accounts") \
	.load ()

Display Dynamics 365 Business Central Data

Check the loaded Dynamics 365 Business Central data by calling the display function.

Step 3: Checking the result

display (remote_table.select ("accountid"))

👁 Displaying Dynamics 365 Business Central Data

Analyze Dynamics 365 Business Central Data in Databricks

If you want to process data with Databricks SparkSQL, register the loaded data as a Temp View.

Step 4: Create a view or table

remote_table.createOrReplaceTempView ( "SAMPLE_VIEW" )

With the Temp View created, you can use SparkSQL to retrieve the Dynamics 365 Business Central data for reporting, visualization, and analysis.

% sql

SELECT accountid, Name FROM SAMPLE_VIEW ORDER BY Name DESC LIMIT 5

👁 Displaying Dynamics 365 Business Central Data

The data from Dynamics 365 Business Central is only available in the target notebook. If you want to use it with other users, save it as a table.

remote_table.write.format ( "parquet" ) .saveAsTable ( "SAMPLE_TABLE" )

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Dynamics 365 Business Central and start working with your live Dynamics 365 Business Central data in Databricks. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.