Viewing eBay 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 eBay, you gain access to live eBay data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to both retrieve and update eBay data. This article will walk through connecting to eBay using the Data Explorer.

Configure a Connection to eBay

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.

If you will be accessing your own account, you can generate an OAuthAccessToken from your developer account dashboard. You can also allow other users to securely access their own accounts.

Both of these methods require you to create an application key set to obtain values for the following connection properties: AppId, CertId, DevId, and SiteId.

The user consent flow additionally requires the RuName and CallbackURL.

See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.

Connecting to eBay Data Using Data Explorer

You can create a simple application for displaying eBay data by utilizing the CData FireDAC Components for eBay 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 eBay. 👁 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: ItemListing) onto the form.

   👁 Placing the Table on the Form. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
8. Select the ItemListingTable 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 ItemListing 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 eBay Data in C++Builder
• DataBind Controls to eBay Data in Delphi
• Build a Simple VCL Application for eBay Data