Access Epicor Kinetic Data in Mule Applications Using the CData JDBC Driver

The CData JDBC Driver for Epicor Kinetic connects Epicor Kinetic data to Mule applications enabling read , write, update, and delete functionality with familiar SQL queries. The JDBC Driver allows users to easily create Mule applications to backup, transform, report, and analyze Epicor Kinetic data.

This article demonstrates how to use the CData JDBC Driver for Epicor Kinetic inside of a Mule project to create a Web interface for Epicor Kinetic data. The application created allows you to request Epicor Kinetic data using an HTTP request and have the results returned as JSON. The exact same procedure outlined below can be used with any CData JDBC Driver to create a Web interface for the hundreds of available data sources.

1. Create a new Mule Project in Anypoint Studio.
2. Add an HTTP Connector to the Message Flow.
3. Configure the address for the HTTP Connector. 👁 Add and Configure the HTTP Connector
   
4. Add a Database Select Connector to the same flow, after the HTTP Connector.
5. Create a new Connection (or edit an existing one) and configure the properties.
   • Set Connection to "Generic Connection"
   • Select the CData JDBC Driver JAR file in the Required Libraries section (e.g. cdata.jdbc.epicorerp.jar). 👁 Adding the JAR file (Salesforce is shown).
     
   • Set the URL to the connection string for Epicor Kinetic

     To successfully connect to your ERP instance, you must specify the following connection properties:

     • Url:the URL of the server hosting your ERP instance. For example, https://myserver.EpicorSaaS.com
     • ERPInstance: the name of your ERP instance.
     • User: the username of your account.
     • Password: the password of your account.
     • Service: the service you want to retrieve data from. For example, BaqSvc.

     In addition, you may also set the optional connection properties:

     • ApiKey: An optional key that may be required for connection to some services depending on your account configuration.
     • ApiVersion: Defaults to v1. May be set to v2 to use the newer Epicor API.
     • Company: Required if you set the ApiVersion to v2.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     		java -jar cdata.jdbc.epicorerp.jar
     		

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

   • Set the Driver class name to cdata.jdbc.epicorerp.EpicorERPDriver. 👁 A configured Database Connection (Salesforce is shown).
     
   • Click Test Connection.
6. Set the SQL Query Text to a SQL query to request Epicor Kinetic data. For example:

   SELECT CustNum, Company FROM Customers WHERE CompanyName = 'CompanyName'

   👁 Configure the Select object (Salesforce is Shown)
   
7. Add a Transform Message Component to the flow.
8. Set the Output script to the following to convert the payload to JSON:

   %dw 2.0
   output application/json
   ---
   payload
    

   👁 Add the Transform Message Component to the Flow
   
9. To view your Epicor Kinetic data, navigate to the address you configured for the HTTP Connector (localhost:8081 by default): http://localhost:8081. The Epicor Kinetic data is available as JSON in your Web browser and any other tools capable of consuming JSON endpoints.

At this point, you have a simple Web interface for working with Epicor Kinetic data (as JSON data) in custom apps and a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools. Download a free, 30 day trial of the JDBC Driver for Epicor Kinetic and see the CData difference in your Mule Applications today.