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

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

Configure Zoho Creator Connectivity for FileMaker Pro

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

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

2. Select "Zoho Creator" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Zoho Creator.

   The connector is already registered with Zoho Creator as an OAuth application.

   If you would prefer to use your own custom OAuth app, see the Help documentation.

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Zoho Creator 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 Zoho Creator data from Filemaker Pro.

Connect to Zoho Creator 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 Zoho Creator 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."

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