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The ADP ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from ADP, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access ADP data like you would a database - read, write, and update ADP FALSE, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

DataBind Controls to ADP Data in C++Builder



DataBind to ADP data in C++Builder with standard components and controls.

The CData ODBC Driver for ADP makes it easy to integrate connectivity to live ADP data with standard data access components in C++Builder. This article shows how to create a simple visual component library (VCL) application in C++Builder that connects to ADP data, executes queries, and displays the results in a grid. An additional section shows how to use FireDAC components to execute commands from code.

Create a Connection to ADP 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.

Connect to ADP by specifying the following properties:

  • SSLClientCert: Set this to the certificate provided during registration.
  • SSLClientCertPassword: Set this to the password of the certificate.
  • UseUAT: The connector makes requests to the production environment by default. If using a developer account, set UseUAT = true.
  • RowScanDepth: The maximum number of rows to scan for the custom fields columns available in the table. The default value will be set to 100. Setting a high value may decrease performance.

The connector uses OAuth to authenticate with ADP. OAuth requires the authenticating user to interact with ADP using the browser. For more information, refer to the OAuth section in the Help documentation.

You can then follow the steps below to use the Data Explorer to create a FireDAC connection to ADP.

  1. In a new VCL Forms application, expand the FireDAC node in the Data Explorer.
  2. Right-click the ODBC Data Source node in the Data Explorer.
  3. Click Add New Connection.
  4. Enter a name for the connection.
  5. In the FireDAC Connection Editor that appears, set the DataSource property to the name of the ODBC DSN for ADP.

Create VCL Applications with Connectivity to ADP Data

Follow the procedure below to start querying ADP data from a simple VCL application that displays the results of a query in a grid.

  1. Drop a TFDConnection component onto the form and set the following properties:

    • ConnectionDefName: Select the FireDAC connection to ADP.
    • Connected: Select True from the menu and, in the dialog that appears, enter your credentials.
  2. Drop a TFDQuery component onto the form and set the properties below:

    • Connection: Set this property to the TFDConnection component, if this component is not already specified.
    • SQL: Click the button in the SQL property and enter a query. For example:

      SELECT AssociateOID, WorkerID FROM Workers WHERE AssociateOID = 'G3349PZGBADQY8H8'
    • Active: Set this property to true.
  3. Drop a TDataSource component onto the form and set the following property:

    • DataSet: In the menu for this property, select the name of the TFDQuery component.
  4. Drop a TDBGrid control onto the form and set the following property:

    • DataSource: Select the name of the TDataSource.
  5. Drop a TFDGUIxWaitCursor onto the form — this is required to avoid a run-time error.

Execute Commands to ADP with FireDAC Components

You can use the TFDConnection and TFQuery components to execute queries to ADP data. This section provides ADP-specific examples of executing queries with the TFQuery component.

Connect to ADP Data

To connect to the data source, set the Connected property of the TFDConnection component to true. You can set the same properties from code:

FDConnection1->ConnectionDefName = "CData ADP ODBC Source"; FDConnection1->Connected = true;

To connect the TFDQuery component to ADP data, set the Connection property of the component. When a TFDQuery component is added at design time, its Connection property is automatically set to point to a TFDConnection on the form, as in the application above.

Create Parameterized Queries

To create a parameterized query, use the following syntax below:

FDQuery1->SQL->Text = "select * from Workers where associateoid = :AssociateOID"; FDQuery1->ParamByName("associateoid")->AsString = "G3349PZGBADQY8H8"; query->Open();

The example above binds a string-type input parameter by name and then opens the dataset that results.

Prepare the Statement

Preparing statements is costly in system resources and time. The connection must be active and open while a statement is prepared. By default, FireDAC prepares the query to avoid recompiling the same query over and over. To disable statement preparation, set ResourceOptions.DirectExecute to True; for example, when you need to execute a query only once.

Execute a Query

To execute a query that returns a result set, such as a select query, use the Open method. The Open method executes the query, returns the result set, and opens it. The Open method will return an error if the query does not produce a result set.

FDQuery1->SQL->Text := "select * from Workers where associateoid = :AssociateOID"; FDQuery1.ParamByName("associateoid")->AsString = "G3349PZGBADQY8H8"; FDQuery1->Open();

To execute a query that does not return a result set, use the ExecSQL method. The ExecSQL method will return an error if the query returns a result set. To retrieve the count of affected rows use the TFD.RowsAffected property.

FDQ.SQL.Text := "delete from Workers where Id = :Id"; FDQuery1->Params->Items[0]->AsString = "x12345"; FDQuery1->ExecSQL(); AnsiString i = FDQuery1->RowsAffected;