Access Harvest Data in Mule Applications Using the CData JDBC Driver

The CData API Driver for JDBC connects Harvest data to Mule applications enabling read functionality with familiar SQL queries. The JDBC Driver allows users to easily create Mule applications to backup, transform, report, and analyze Harvest data.

This article demonstrates how to use the CData API Driver for JDBC inside of a Mule project to create a Web interface for Harvest data. The application created allows you to request Harvest data using an HTTP request and have the results returned as JSON. The exact same procedure outlined below can be used with any CData JDBC Driver to create a Web interface for the 200+ available data sources.

1. Create a new Mule Project in Anypoint Studio.
2. Add an HTTP Connector to the Message Flow.
3. Configure the address for the HTTP Connector.
4. Add a Database Select Connector to the same flow, after the HTTP Connector.
5. Create a new Connection (or edit an existing one) and configure the properties.
   • Set Connection to "Generic Connection"
   • Select the CData JDBC Driver JAR file in the Required Libraries section (e.g. cdata.jdbc.api.jar).
   • Set the URL to the connection string for Harvest

     Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the Harvest Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\Harvest.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Harvest (see below).

     Harvest API Profile Settings

     To authenticate to Harvest, you can use either Token authentication or the OAuth standard. Use Basic authentication to connect to your own data. Use OAuth to allow other users to connect to their data.

     Using Token Authentication

     To use Token Authentication, set the APIKey to your Harvest Personal Access Token in the ProfileSettings connection property. In addition to APIKey, set your AccountId in ProfileSettings to connect.

     Using OAuth Authentication

     First, register an OAuth2 application with Harvest. The application can be created from the "Developers" section of Harvest ID.

     After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

     • ProfileSettings: Set your AccountId in ProfileSettings.
     • AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
     • OAuthClientId: Set this to the client ID that you specified in your app settings.
     • OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client secret that you specified in your app settings.
     • CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI that you specified in your app settings.
     • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to manage how the driver obtains and refreshes the OAuthAccessToken.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.api.jar

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

   • Set the Driver class name to cdata.jdbc.api.APIDriver.
   • Click Test Connection.
6. Set the SQL Query Text to a SQL query to request Harvest data. For example: SELECT Id, ClientName FROM Invoices WHERE State = 'open'
7. Add a Transform Message Component to the flow.
8. Set the Output script to the following to convert the payload to JSON:

   %dw 2.0
   output application/json
   ---
   payload
           

9. To view your Harvest data, navigate to the address you configured for the HTTP Connector (localhost:8081 by default): http://localhost:8081. The Harvest data is available as JSON in your Web browser and any other tools capable of consuming JSON endpoints.

At this point, you have a simple Web interface for working with Harvest data (as JSON data) in custom apps and a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools. Download a free, 30 day trial of the JDBC Driver for Harvest and see the CData difference in your Mule Applications today.