Using the CData ODBC Driver for Dynamics 365 in PyCharm

The CData ODBC Drivers can be used in any environment that supports loading an ODBC Driver. In this tutorial we will explore using the CData ODBC Driver for Dynamics 365 from within PyCharm. Included are steps for adding the CData ODBC Driver as a data source, as well as basic PyCharm code to query the data source and display results.

To begin, this tutorial will assume that you have already installed the CData ODBC Driver for Dynamics 365 as well as PyCharm.

Getting Started

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Add Pyodbc to the Project

Follow the steps below to add the pyodbc module to your project.

1. Click File -> Settings to open the project settings window.
2. Click Project Interpreter from the Project: YourProjectName menu.
3. To add pyodbc, click the + button and enter pyodbc.
4. Click Install Package to install pyodbc.

Connect to Dynamics 365

You can now connect with an ODBC connection string or a DSN. See the Getting Started section in the CData driver documentation for a guide to creating a DSN on your OS.

Edition and OrganizationUrl are required connection properties. The Dynamics 365 connector supports connecting to the following editions: CustomerService, FieldService, FinOpsOnline, FinOpsOnPremise, HumanResources, Marketing, ProjectOperations and Sales.

For Dynamics 365 Business Central, use the separate Dynamics 365 Business Central driver.

OrganizationUrl is the URL to your Dynamics 365 organization. For instance, https://orgcb42e1d0.crm.dynamics.com

Below is the syntax for a DSN:

[CData Dynamics365 Source]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Dynamics 365
Description = My Description
OrganizationUrl = https://myaccount.operations.dynamics.com/
Edition = Sales
InitiateOAuth = GETANDREFRESH

Execute SQL to Dynamics 365

Instantiate a Cursor and use the execute method of the Cursor class to execute any SQL statement.

import pyodbc

cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DRIVER={CData ODBC Driver for Dynamics365};OrganizationUrl = https://myaccount.operations.dynamics.com/;Edition = Sales;InitiateOAuth = GETANDREFRESH;')
cursor = cnxn.cursor()
cursor.execute("SELECT GoalHeadingId, Name FROM GoalHeadings WHERE Name = 'MyAccount'")
rows = cursor.fetchall()
for row in rows:
 print(row.GoalHeadingId, row.Name)

After connecting to Dynamics 365 in PyCharm using the CData ODBC Driver, you will be able to build Python apps with access to Dynamics 365 data as if it were a standard database. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback regarding this tutorial, please contact us at [email protected].