Viewing ShipStation 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 ShipStation, you gain access to live ShipStation data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to both retrieve ShipStation data. This article will walk through connecting to ShipStation using the Data Explorer.

Configure a Connection to ShipStation

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.

Use the BASIC Authentication standard to connect.

1. Login to your ShipStation account
2. Click on the settings icon in the upper right corner. A column menu will show up on the left
3. Click Account -> API Settings
4. On the API Settings page, note the API Key and API Secret.

Authenticating to ShipStation

• APIKey: Set this to the API key from the API settings page.
• APISecret: Set this to the Secret key from the API settings page.

Connecting to ShipStation Data Using Data Explorer

You can create a simple application for displaying ShipStation data by utilizing the CData FireDAC Components for ShipStation 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 ShipStation. 👁 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: Tags) onto the form.

   👁 Placing the View on the Form. (Salesforce is shown.)
   
8. Select the TagsView 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 Tags 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 ShipStation Data in C++Builder
• DataBind Controls to ShipStation Data in Delphi
• Build a Simple VCL Application for ShipStation Data