Discover how a bimodal integration strategy can address the major data management challenges facing your organization today.
Get the Report →Connect to Salesforce Data in Ruby
Connect to Salesforce data in Ruby with ruby-dbi, dbd-odbc, and ruby-odbc.
The CData ODBC Driver for Salesforce makes it easy to integrate connectivity to live Salesforce data in Ruby. This article shows how to create a simple Ruby app that connects to Salesforce data, executes a query, and displays the results.
Create an ODBC Connection to Salesforce Data
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.
There are several authentication methods available for connecting to Salesforce: Login, OAuth, and SSO. The Login method requires you to have the username, password, and security token of the user.
If you do not have access to the username and password or do not wish to require them, you can use OAuth authentication.
SSO (single sign-on) can be used by setting the SSOProperties, SSOLoginUrl, and TokenUrl connection properties, which allow you to authenticate to an identity provider. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for more information.
Installing Ruby and Necessary Gems
If you do not have Ruby installed, refer to the Ruby installation page. With Ruby installed, you will need to install the ruby-dbi, dbd-odbc, and ruby-odbc gems:
gem install dbi
gem install dbd-odbc
gem install ruby-odbc
Create a Ruby App with Connectivity to Salesforce Data
Create a new Ruby file (for example: SalesforceSelect.rb) and open it in a text editor. Copy the following code into your file:
#connect to the DSN
require 'DBI'
cnxn = DBI.connect('DBI:ODBC:CData Salesforce Source','','')
#execute a SELECT query and store the result set
resultSet = cnxn.execute("SELECT Contact.Name, SUM(Account.AnnualRevenue) FROM Contact, Account GROUP BY Contact.Name")
#display the names of the columns
resultSet.column_names.each do |name|
print name, "\t"
end
puts
#display the results
while row = resultSet.fetch do
(0..resultSet.column_names.size - 1).each do |n|
print row[n], "\t"
end
puts
end
resultSet.finish
#close the connection
cnxn.disconnect if cnxn
With the file completed, you are ready to display your Salesforce data with Ruby. To do so, simply run your file from the command line:
ruby SalesforceSelect.rb
Writing SQL-92 queries to Salesforce allows you to quickly and easily incorporate Salesforce data into your own Ruby applications. Download a free trial today!