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URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/odata-cloud-filemaker-pro.rst

⇱ Connect to OData Services from Filemaker Pro (Mac)

Connect to OData Services from Filemaker Pro (Mac)

👁 Mohsin Turki
Mohsin Turki
Technical Marketing Engineer
Use CData Connect AI to connect to and query live OData services from Filemaker Pro on Mac.

FileMaker Pro is a cross-platform relational database application that allows users to visually modify a database. When paired with CData Connect AI, FileMaker Pro gets access to live OData services. This article demonstrates how to connect to OData using Connect AI and query OData services in FileMaker Pro.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL Server interface for OData, allowing you to query data from OData without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to OData, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested OData services quickly.

About OData Data Integration

CData simplifies access and integration of live OData services data. Our customers leverage CData connectivity to:

  • Access OData versions 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0, working with legacy services and the latest features and capabilities.
  • Leverage advanced query options, including $filter, $select, and $expand, enhancing data retrieval from 3rd party tools.
  • Use Server-side execution of aggregation and grouping to minimize data transfer and boost performance.
  • Authenticate securely using a variety of schemes, including Azure AD, digest, negotiate, NTLM, OAuth, and more means secure authentication with every connection.
  • Use SQL stored procedures to manage OData service entities - listing, creating, and removing associations between entities.

Customers use CData's solutions to regularly integrate their OData services with preferred tools, such as Power BI, MicroStrategy, or Tableau, and to replicate data from OData services to their databases or data warehouses.


Getting Started


Configure OData Connectivity for FileMaker Pro

Connectivity to OData from FileMaker Pro is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with OData services from FileMaker Pro, we start by creating and configuring a OData connection.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
    2. 👁 Adding a Connection
  2. Select "OData" from the Add Connection panel
    3. 👁 Selecting a data source
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to OData.

    The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid OData user credentials. In addition, specify a URL to a valid OData server organization root or OData services file.

    👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
  4. Click Save & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add OData Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

  1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
  2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
  3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
  4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to OData services from Filemaker Pro.

Connect to OData from FileMaker Pro using Connect AI

To establish a connection from FileMaker Pro to the CData Connect AI Virtual SQL Server API, follow these steps.

Configure the ODBC Connection to CData Connect AI

  1. Download and install the Actual ODBC Driver for SQL Server (actualtech.com)
  2. Configure a DSN for the Actual ODBC driver by setting the following properties:
    • URL: tds.cdata.com
    • Port: Change the port from 1433 to 14333
    • Username: Your Connect AI email address
    • Password: the PAT you created earlier

Query OData from FileMaker Pro

  1. In the SQL Query Builder "SELECT" tab, select the columns to include as part of the query. 👁 Configuring the query by selecting columns.
  2. Open the "WHERE" tab of the SQL Query Builder and select "Show only selected columns."
  3. In "Table.Column,"" select a table and a column name.
  4. Set the "Operator" to =.
  5. Select "Column," and then select the same table and column name as "Table.Column."
  6. Click "Insert into SQL Query." 👁 Configuring the query by setting the WHERE clause.
  7. If no other modifications to the SQL query are required, click "Execute."

Get CData Connect AI

To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your SQL Server database, try CData Connect AI today!