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URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/salesforce-jdbc-finereport.rst

⇱ Feed Salesforce Data into FineReport

Feed Salesforce Data into FineReport

👁 Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
How to set Salesforce data as a JDBC data source in FineReport.

The CData JDBC Driver for Salesforce fully implements the JDBC standard and can provide Salesforce data connectivity to a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools and custom applications. In this article, we explain how to set Salesforce data as JDBC data source in FineReport and view Salesforce data as a table in the Report Designer.

About Salesforce Data Integration

Accessing and integrating live data from Salesforce has never been easier with CData. Customers rely on CData connectivity to:

  • Access to custom entities and fields means Salesforce users get access to all of Salesforce.
  • Create atomic and batch update operations.
  • Read, write, update, and delete their Salesforce data.
  • Leverage the latest Salesforce features and functionalities with support for SOAP API versions 30.0.
  • See improved performance based on SOQL support to push complex queries down to Salesforce servers.
  • Use SQL stored procedures to perform actions like creating, retrieving, aborting, and deleting jobs, uploading and downloading attachments and documents, and more.

Users frequently integrate Salesforce data with:

  • other ERPs, marketing automation, HCMs, and more.
  • preferred data tools like Power BI, Tableau, Looker, and more.
  • databases and data warehouses.

For more information on how CData solutions work with Salesforce, check out our Salesforce integration page.


Getting Started


Set Up a JDBC Data Source of Salesforce Data

Follow the instruction below to set Salesforce data as a FineReport database connection.

  1. Copy the cdata.jdbc.salesforce.jar file from the lib folder in the CData JDBC Driver for Salesforce installation directory to the lib folder of the FineReport installation directory. You will need to copy the cdata.jdbc.salesforce.lic file as well.
  2. From the Server tab, select Define Data Connection, click to add a new connection, and click JDBC.
    3. 👁 FineReport Server Tab (Salesforce is shown.)

Next we will set up the data connection definition in the window.

  1. Database: Others
  2. JDBC Driver: cdata.jdbc.salesforce.SalesforceDriver
  3. URL: A standard JDBC connection string using semicolon-separated connection properties.

    There are several authentication methods available for connecting to Salesforce: OAuth, Login (or basic), and SSO. The Login method requires you to have the username, password, and security token of the user.

    OAuth Authentication (default)

    The default authentication mechanism (and the one preferred by Salesforce) is OAuth. To use OAuth with CData's embedded OAuth application, leave the connection properties blank. If you have configured your own custom OAuth application with Salesforce (see the Help documentation for more information), set OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL to the properties for you application. Set InitiateOAuth to the desired OAuth flow ("GETANDREFRESH" will have the connector manage the entire OAuth flow).

    Login (or Basic) Authentication

    If you do not wish do not wish to use OAuth authentication, you can use Login (or basic) authentication. Set AuthScheme to Basic, and set the User, Password, and SecurityToken properties. You can configure your security token in Salesforce.

    SSO (single sign-on) Authentication

    SSO (single sign-on) can be used by setting the SSOProperties, SSOLoginUrl, and SSOExchangeURL connection properties, which allow you to authenticate to an identity provider. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the Help documentation for more information.

    Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

    If your Salesforce org has MFA enforcement enabled, set MFACode to the time-based one-time passcode (TOTP) generated by your authenticator app (such as Salesforce Authenticator or Google Authenticator). MFACode applies to both OAuth and Login authentication flows.

    Built-in Connection String Designer

    For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Salesforce JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

    java -jar cdata.jdbc.salesforce.jar

    Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

    👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)

    When you configure the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

    A typical JDBC URL is below:

     jdbc:salesforce:InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;MFACode=YourMFACode
    4. 👁 FineReport data connection definition window (Salesforce is shown.)
  4. Click Connection pool attributes and set Test before getting connections to No.
    5. 👁 FineReport connection pool (Salesforce is shown.)

Click Test connection to ensure you have configured the connection properly. With the connection to Salesforce set up, you can use it as FineReport data source.

Select Salesforce Data in the Report Designer.

  1. Click to add a new template data set and select DB query to open the database query window.
    2. 👁 Adding a new DB query.
  2. Choose the JDBC connection that you created from the dropdown list.
  3. The Salesforce entities will appear as tables on the left pane.
  4. Write a SELECT statement for the Salesforce data tables and columns that you want to load.
    5. 👁 FineReport database query (Salesforce is shown.)
  5. Click preview and data is shown as table.
    6. 👁 FineReport database query preview (Salesforce is shown.)

With these simple steps, Salesforce can be used as a JDBC data source in FineReport.

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the Salesforce Driver to get started:

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