How to connect to Sugar CRM Data in DBVisualizer

The CData JDBC Driver for Sugar implements JDBC standards to provide connectivity to Sugar CRM data in applications ranging from business intelligence tools to IDEs. This article shows how to establish a connection to Sugar CRM data in DBVisualizer and use the table editor to edit and save Sugar CRM data.

Create a New Driver Definition for Sugar CRM Data

Follow the steps below to use the Driver Manager to provide connectivity to Sugar CRM data from DBVisualizer tools.

1. In DBVisualizer, click Tools -> Driver Manager.
2. Click the plus sign "" to create a new driver.
3. Select "Custom" as the template.
4. On the Driver Settings tab:
   • Set Name to a user-friendly name (e.g. "CData Sugar CRM Driver")
   • Set URL Format to jdbc:sugarcrm:
   • In Driver artifacts and jar files (jars are loaded in order from top):
     1. Click the plus sign "" -> "Add Files"
     2. Navigate to the "lib" folder in the installation directory (C:\Program Files\CData[product_name] XXXX\)
     3. Select the JAR file (cdata.jdbc.SugarCRM.jar) and click "Open"
5. The Driver Class should populate automatically. If not, select class (cdata.jdbc.sugarcrm.SugarCRMDriver).

Define the Connection to the JDBC Data Source

Close the "Driver Manager" and follow the steps below to save connection properties in the JDBC URL.

1. In the "Databases" tab, click the plus sign "" and select the driver you just created.

2. In the "Connection" section, set the following options:

   • Database Type: If you selected the wizard option, the database type is automatically detected. If you selected the "No Wizard" option, select the Generic or Auto Detect option in the Database Type menu.
   • Driver Type: Select the driver you just created.

   • Database URL: Enter the full JDBC URL. The syntax of the JDBC URL is jdbc:sugarcrm: followed by the connection properties in a semicolon-separated list of name-value pairs.

     The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid SugarCRM user credentials. This will use the default OAuth token created to allow client logins. OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret are required if you do not wish to use the default OAuth token.

     You can generate a new OAuth consumer key and consumer secret in Admin -> OAuth Keys. Set the OAuthClientId to the OAuth consumer key. Set the OAuthClientSecret to the consumer secret.

     Additionally, specify the URL to the SugarCRM account.

     Note that retrieving SugarCRM metadata can be expensive. It is advised that you store the metadata locally as described in the "Caching Metadata" chapter of the help documentation.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.sugarcrm.jar

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

     When you configure the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

     A typical connection string is below:

     jdbc:sugarcrm:User=MyUser;Password=MyPassword;URL=MySugarCRMAccountURL;CacheMetadata=True;
   • NOTE: Database Userid and Database Password correspond with the User and Password properties for Sugar CRM.
3. On the Connection tab, click Connect.

To browse through tables exposed by the Sugar CRM JDBC Driver, right-click a table and click "Open in New Tab."

To execute SQL queries, use the SQL Commander tool: Click SQL Commander -> New SQL Commander. Select the Database Connection, Database, and Schema from the available menus.

See the "Supported SQL" chapter in the help documentation for more information on the supported SQL. See the "Data Model" chapter for table-specific information.

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