Crystal Reports is a business intelligence application by SAP designed to help you analyze your data with well-formatted,
pixel-perfect, and multi-page reports. When paired with CData Connect AI, Crystal Reports gets access to live QuickBooks Online data.
This article demonstrates how to connect to QuickBooks Online using Connect AI and report on QuickBooks Online data in Crystal Reports.
CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL Server interface for QuickBooks Online, allowing you to query data from
QuickBooks Online 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 QuickBooks Online, leveraging server-side processing to return the
requested QuickBooks Online data quickly.
About QuickBooks Online Data Integration
CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from QuickBooks Online. Customers use CData connectivity to:
- Realize high-performance data reads thanks to push-down query optimization for complex operations like filters and aggregations.
- Read, write, update, and delete QuickBooks Online data.
- Run reports, download attachments, and send or void invoices directly from code using SQL stored procedures.
- Connect securely using OAuth and modern cryptography, including TLS 1.2, SHA-256, and ECC.
Many users access live QuickBooks Online data from preferred analytics tools like Power BI and Excel, directly from databases with federated access, and use CData solutions to easily integrate QuickBooks Online data with automated workflows for business-to-business communications.
For more information on how customers are solving problems with CData's QuickBooks Online solutions, refer to our blog: https://www.cdata.com/blog/360-view-of-your-customers.
Getting Started
Configure QuickBooks Online Connectivity for Crystal Reports
Connectivity to QuickBooks Online from Crystal Reports is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with QuickBooks Online data from Crystal Reports, we start by creating and configuring a QuickBooks Online connection.
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Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection
- Select "QuickBooks Online" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source
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QuickBooks Online uses OAuth to authenticate. Click "Sign in" to authenticate with QuickBooks Online.
👁 Authenticating with OAuth (Salesforce is shown).
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Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add QuickBooks Online 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.
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Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
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On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
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Give the PAT a name and click Create.
👁 Creating a new PAT
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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 QuickBooks Online data from Crystal Reports.
Connect to QuickBooks Online from Crystal Reports using Connect AI
To establish a connection from Crystal Reports to CData Connect AI, you will need to download the JDBC driver.
- Open the Client Tools page of CData Connect AI.
- Search for and select JDBC.
- Download and run the setup file.
- When the installation is complete, locate the JDBC Connect JAR file in the JDBC driver's installation directory, for example, C:\Program Files\CData\JDBC Driver for CData Connect\lib.
- Copy the JDBC Connect JAR file (cdata.jdbc.connect.jar).
After copying the JDBC CData Connect JAR file, you will need to paste it into the Crystal Reports installation location and configure the connection to Connect AI.
- Find the installation directory for Crystal Reports, for example, C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\java\lib
- Paste the JDBC Connect JAR file into the Crystal Reports installation directory.
- Go to the parent java folder. For example, C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\java This folder should contain a CRConfig file.
👁 Locating the CRConfig file in the Crystal Reports installation directory.
- Open CRConfig in a text editor.
- Add the path to the JDBC CData Connect JAR file in the
- Log into Crystal Reports and start a blank report.
- In the Database Expert dialog, click Create New Connection.
- Select the JDBC data source and the tables you want to add. Click OK.
👁 Selecting the JDBC data source.
- In the Connection dialog, enter the Connection URL (e.g. jdbc:connect:AuthScheme=Basic;user=username;password=PAT;) and Database Classname (e.g. cdata.jdbc.connect.ConnectDriver).
👁 Configuring the connection.
- Click Finish. The Database Expert dialog displays all available connections.
👁 Browsing the available data from Connect AI.
You can now create reports with the connected data.
Get CData Connect AI
To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from Crystal Reports,
try CData Connect AI today!
