Integrate xBase Data into Automated Tasks with Power Automate

Power Automate (Microsoft Flow) is an online service that automates events (known as workflows) across the most common apps and services. When paired with CData Connect Server, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to xBase data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to connect to Connect Server from Power Automate and integrate live xBase data into your workflows and tasks.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL interface for xBase, allowing you to easily integrate with live xBase data in Power Automate — without replicating the data. CData Connect Server looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Power Automate and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to xBase, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return xBase data.

Create a Virtual SQL Database for xBase Data

CData Connect Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.

1. Login to Connect Server and click Connections.
2. Select "xBase" from Available Data Sources.
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to xBase.

   The DataSource property must be set to the name of the folder that contains the .dbf files. Specify the IncludeFiles property to work with xBase table files having extensions that differ from .dbf. Specify multiple extensions in a comma-separated list.

4. Click Save Changes
5. Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions.

Connecting to CData Connect Server

To use Connect Server to integrate xBase data into your Power Automate tasks, you need a new SQL Server connection:

1. Log in to Power Automate
2. Click Data -> Connections -> New connection
3. Select SQL Server
4. In the connection wizard:
   
   
   • Set Authentication Type to "SQL Server Authentication"
   • Set SQL server name to the address of your Connect Server instance (connect_server_url)
   • Set SQL database name to the name of the virtual xBase database you created earlier (like xbasedb)
   • Set the Username and Password and click Create

Integrating xBase Data into Power Automate Tasks

With the connection to Connect Server configured, you are ready to integrate live xBase data into your Power Automate tasks.

1. Log in to Power Automate
2. Click My flows -> New and choose to create the flow from blank or template
3. Add (or configure) a SQL Server action (like Get rows) and configure the action to connect to your Connect Server connection
4. Select a Table to work with (from the drop-down menu) and configure any advanced options (like filters, orders, etc)
5. Configure any actions to follow and test, then save the flow

SQL Access to xBase Data from Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live xBase data from Power Automate tasks. You can create more connections and workflows to drive business — all without replicating xBase data.

To get SQL data access to 200+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your applications, see the CData Connect Server.

Related Power Automate Articles

This article walks through using CData Connect Server with Power Automate (Online). Check out our other articles for more ways to work with Power Automate Desktop:

• xBase Data in Power Automate Desktop using CData Connect
• xBase Data in Power Automate Desktop via ODBC