Access Sage 300 Data in Mule Applications Using the CData JDBC Driver

The CData JDBC Driver for Sage 300 connects Sage 300 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 Sage 300 data.

This article demonstrates how to use the CData JDBC Driver for Sage 300 inside of a Mule project to create a Web interface for Sage 300 data. The application created allows you to request Sage 300 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.sage300.jar).
   • Set the URL to the connection string for Sage 300

     Sage 300 requires some initial setup in order to communicate over the Sage 300 Web API.

     • Set up the security groups for the Sage 300 user. Give the Sage 300 user access to the option under Security Groups (per each module required).
     • Edit both web.config files in the /Online/Web and /Online/WebApi folders; change the key AllowWebApiAccessForAdmin to true. Restart the webAPI app-pool for the settings to take.
     • Once the user access is configured, click https://server/Sage300WebApi/ to ensure access to the web API.

     Authenticate to Sage 300 using Basic authentication.

     Connect Using Basic Authentication

     You must provide values for the following properties to successfully authenticate to Sage 300. Note that the provider reuses the session opened by Sage 300 using cookies. This means that your credentials are used only on the first request to open the session. After that, cookies returned from Sage 300 are used for authentication.

     • Url: Set this to the url of the server hosting Sage 300. Construct a URL for the Sage 300 Web API as follows: {protocol}://{host-application-path}/v{version}/{tenant}/ For example, http://localhost/Sage300WebApi/v1.0/-/.
     • User: Set this to the username of your account.
     • Password: Set this to the password of your account.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Sage 300 JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.sage300.jar

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

   • Set the Driver class name to cdata.jdbc.sage300.Sage300Driver.
   • Click Test Connection.
6. Set the SQL Query Text to a SQL query to request Sage 300 data. For example: SELECT InvoiceUniquifier, ApprovedLimit FROM OEInvoices WHERE AllowPartialShipments = 'Yes'
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 Sage 300 data, navigate to the address you configured for the HTTP Connector (localhost:8081 by default): http://localhost:8081. The Sage 300 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 Sage 300 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 Sage 300 and see the CData difference in your Mule Applications today.