Viewing SAP ByDesign Data in RAD Studio Data Explorer

Embarcadero RAD Studio provides a development environment for Delphi and C++Builder applications. With the CData ODBC Driver for SAP ByDesign, you gain access to live SAP ByDesign data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to both retrieve SAP ByDesign data. This article will walk through connecting to SAP ByDesign using the Data Explorer.

Configure a Connection to SAP ByDesign

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Set the following connection properties to connect to SAP ByDesign.

• Url: Set this to the Url of your SAP ByDesign site. For example, https://test.sapbydesign.com
• User: Set this to the username of your account.
• Password: Set this to the password of your account.
• CustomService or AnalyticsService: Only one of these must be specified. If you have a custom service you want to retrieve data from, specify CustomService. If you want to retrieve the reports of a analytical service, specify AnalyticsService.
  If neither is specified, 'cc_home_analytics.svc' will used as a default for the AnalyticsService property. If you are not sure what service to specify, you can always query the Services view to list available services.

Connecting to SAP ByDesign Data Using Data Explorer

You can create a simple application for displaying SAP ByDesign data by utilizing the CData FireDAC Components for SAP ByDesign and a new VCL Forms Application:

1. Open the Data Explorer in RAD Studio and expand FireDAC.
2. Right-click the ODBC Data Source node in the Data Explorer.
3. Click Add New Connection. 👁 Adding a New Connection. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
4. Enter a name for the connection.
5. In the FireDAC Connection Editor that appears, set the DataSource property to the name of the ODBC DSN for SAP ByDesign. 👁 Setting the Connection Parameters. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
6. Back in the Data Explorer, expand the views for the connection.

7. Create a new VCL Forms application and drag a view (for example: [Inventory Balance]) onto the form.

   👁 Placing the View on the Form. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
8. Select the [Inventory Balance]View object on the form and set the Active property to true.

9. Right-click on the object, bind visually, and link everything (*) to a new control (TStringGrid).

   👁 Visually Binding the View. (Salesforce is shown.)
   

10. Arrange the TStringGrid on the form and run the application to see the [Inventory Balance] data.

    👁 The View data on a Form. (Salesforce is shown.)
    

Related Articles

Below you can find other articles for using the CData ODBC Driver with RAD Studio, Delphi, and C++ Builder.

• DataBind Controls to SAP ByDesign Data in C++Builder
• DataBind Controls to SAP ByDesign Data in Delphi
• Build a Simple VCL Application for SAP ByDesign Data