Connect to Office 365 Data from Filemaker Pro (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 Office 365 data. This article demonstrates how to connect to Office 365 using Connect AI and query Office 365 data in FileMaker Pro.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL Server interface for Office 365, allowing you to query data from Office 365 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 Office 365, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested Office 365 data quickly.

Configure Office 365 Connectivity for FileMaker Pro

Connectivity to Office 365 from FileMaker Pro is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Office 365 data from FileMaker Pro, we start by creating and configuring a Office 365 connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection

2. Select "Office 365" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Office 365.

   Office 365 uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate requests, obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and OAuthCallbackURL by registering an app with Office 365. See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Office 365 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 Office 365 data from Filemaker Pro.

Connect to Office 365 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 Office 365 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

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