Viewing Dynamics 365 Business Central Data in RAD Studio Data Explorer

Embarcadero RAD Studio provides a development environment for Delphi and C++Builder applications. With the CData ODBC Driver for Dynamics 365 Business Central, you gain access to live Dynamics 365 Business Central data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to both retrieve and update Dynamics 365 Business Central data. This article will walk through connecting to Dynamics 365 Business Central using the Data Explorer.

Configure a Connection to Dynamics 365 Business Central

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

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.

Connecting to Dynamics 365 Business Central Data Using Data Explorer

You can create a simple application for displaying Dynamics 365 Business Central data by utilizing the CData FireDAC Components for Dynamics 365 Business Central and a new VCL Forms Application:

1. Open the Data Explorer in RAD Studio and expand FireDAC.
2. Right-click the ODBC Data Source node in the Data Explorer.
3. Click Add New Connection. 👁 Adding a New Connection. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
4. Enter a name for the connection.
5. In the FireDAC Connection Editor that appears, set the DataSource property to the name of the ODBC DSN for Dynamics 365 Business Central. 👁 Setting the Connection Parameters. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
6. Back in the Data Explorer, expand the tables for the connection.

7. Create a new VCL Forms application and drag a table (for example: Accounts) onto the form.

   👁 Placing the Table on the Form. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
8. Select the AccountsTable object on the form and set the Active property to true.

9. Right-click on the object, bind visually, and link everything (*) to a new control (TStringGrid).

   👁 Visually Binding the Table. (Salesforce is shown.)
   

10. Arrange the TStringGrid on the form and run the application to see the Accounts data.

    👁 The Table data on a Form. (Salesforce is shown.)
    

Related Articles

Below you can find other articles for using the CData ODBC Driver with RAD Studio, Delphi, and C++ Builder.

• DataBind Controls to Dynamics 365 Business Central Data in C++Builder
• DataBind Controls to Dynamics 365 Business Central Data in Delphi
• Build a Simple VCL Application for Dynamics 365 Business Central Data