Connect to Epicor Kinetic Data in Ruby

The CData ODBC Driver for Epicor Kinetic makes it easy to integrate connectivity to live Epicor Kinetic data in Ruby. This article shows how to create a simple Ruby app that connects to Epicor Kinetic data, executes a query, and displays the results.

Create an ODBC Connection to Epicor Kinetic Data

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 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.

Installing Ruby and Necessary Gems

If you do not have Ruby installed, refer to the Ruby installation page. With Ruby installed, you will need to install the ruby-dbi, dbd-odbc, and ruby-odbc gems:

gem install dbi
gem install dbd-odbc
gem install ruby-odbc

Create a Ruby App with Connectivity to Epicor Kinetic Data

Create a new Ruby file (for example: EpicorERPSelect.rb) and open it in a text editor. Copy the following code into your file:

#connect to the DSN
require 'dbi'
cnxn = DBI.connect('DBI:ODBC:CData EpicorERP Source','','')

#execute a SELECT query and store the result set
resultSet = cnxn.execute("SELECT CustNum, Company FROM Customers WHERE CompanyName = 'CompanyName'")

#display the names of the columns
resultSet.column_names.each do |name|
 print name, "\t"
end
puts

#display the results
while row = resultSet.fetch do
 (0..resultSet.column_names.size - 1).each do |n|
 print row[n], "\t"
 end
 puts
end
resultSet.finish

#close the connection
cnxn.disconnect if cnxn

With the file completed, you are ready to display your Epicor Kinetic data with Ruby. To do so, simply run your file from the command line:

ruby EpicorERPSelect.rb

Writing SQL-92 queries to Epicor Kinetic allows you to quickly and easily incorporate Epicor Kinetic data into your own Ruby applications. Download a free trial today!