Connect to QuickBooks Online 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 QuickBooks Online data. This article demonstrates how to connect to QuickBooks Online using Connect AI and query QuickBooks Online data in FileMaker Pro.

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.

Getting Started

---

Configure QuickBooks Online Connectivity for FileMaker Pro

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

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

2. Select "QuickBooks Online" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. QuickBooks Online uses OAuth to authenticate. Click "Sign in" to authenticate with QuickBooks Online. 👁 Authenticating with OAuth (Salesforce is shown).
   
4. 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.

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 QuickBooks Online data from Filemaker Pro.

Connect to QuickBooks Online 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 QuickBooks Online 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!