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URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/xero-cloud-heidisql.rst

⇱ Connect to Xero Data from HeidiSQL

Connect to Xero Data from HeidiSQL

👁 Mohsin Turki
Mohsin Turki
Technical Marketing Engineer
Use CData Connect AI to connect to and query live Xero data from HeidiSQL.

HeidiSQL is an open-source database administration tool that natively supports MariaDB, MySQL, SQL Server, and PostgreSQL. When paired with CData Connect AI, HediSQL reach extends to include access to live Xero data. This article demonstrates how to connect to Xero using Connect AI and query Xero data in HeidiSQL.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL Server interface for Xero, allowing you to query data from Xero 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 Xero, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested Xero data quickly.

About Xero Data Integration

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

  • Connect to Xero Accounts and both US and Australian Payroll APIs.
  • Read, write, update, and delete Xero objects like Customers, Transactions, Invoices, Sales Receipts and more.
  • Use SQL stored procedures for actions like adding items to a cart, submitting orders, and downloading attachments.
  • Work with accounting, payroll, file, fixed asset, and project data.

Customers regularly integrate their Xero data with preferred tools, like Tableau, Qlik Sense, or Excel, and integrate Xero data into their database or data warehouse.


Getting Started


Configure Xero Connectivity for HeidiSQL

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

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
    2. 👁 Adding a Connection
  2. Select "Xero" from the Add Connection panel
    3. 👁 Selecting a data source
  3. Xero uses OAuth to authenticate. Click "Sign in" to authenticate with Xero. 👁 Authenticating with OAuth (Salesforce is shown).
  4. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Xero 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 Xero data from HeidiSQL.

Connect to Xero from HeidiSQL using Connect AI

To establish a connection from HeidiSQL to the CData Connect AI Virtual SQL Server API, follow these steps.

Create a new HeidiSQL Session

  1. In the Session Manager, select New in the bottom-left
  2. Give the new session a descriptive name, e.g. Connect-Cloud-Xero
    3. 👁 Creating a new session in HeidiSQL.

Configure a SQL Server Connection to Connect AI

  1. In the session settings, set the Network type to Microsoft SQL Server (TCP/IP)
  2. The Library DLL should automatically update to MSOLEDBSQL
  3. Set the Hostname/IP to tds.cdata.com
  4. Set the User to your CData Connect AI username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect AI interface. For example, [email protected]
  5. Set the Password to your PAT created in Connect AI in the previous section.
  6. Set the Port to 14333 👁 Configuring a SQL Server connection to Connect AI

Query Xero from HeidiSQL

  1. In the database listing on the left, find your connection to Xero configured earlier.
  2. Expand this connection to view individual tables or data objects present within Xero.
  3. Write custom SQL queries targeting these tables, treating the data source like any SQL Server database, or visually explore each tabular data set by selecting the relevant tables 👁 Querying within HeidiSQL.

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!