Work with Anaplan Data in FoxPro

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Load Anaplan data into a FoxPro database. This article includes full code and a walk-through of the process.

The CData ODBC driver for Anaplan enables you to access Anaplan data using the ODBC standard. You can use the CData ODBC Driver for Anaplan to integrate Anaplan data into your FoxPro project. The procedure below provides a walk-through of the included code sample, which saves Anaplan data into tables in a FoxPro database.

Connect to Anaplan as an ODBC Data Source

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.

NOTE: Set the 'Map To WVarchar' connection property to FALSE (FoxPro uses the ODBC W API and returns the WCHAR for the value type).

Authenticating to Anaplan

The driver supports authenticating with Basic, Certificate, or OAuth. In every case, set Region to the region where your Anaplan account data is hosted (e.g., US1, which is the default).

Using Basic Authentication

Set AuthScheme to Basic, then supply your Anaplan User and Password. If your workspace uses single sign-on (SSO), you must be assigned as an Exception User to use Basic authentication.

Using Certificate Authentication

Set AuthScheme to Certificate, then supply the Certificate, CertificateType, and PrivateKey properties (and the matching CertificatePassword / PrivateKeyPassword if either is encrypted). The certificate must be a CA-issued X.509 certificate registered with your Anaplan tenant administrator.

Using OAuth Authentication

Register a custom OAuth application in Anaplan, then set the following properties:

  • OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
  • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
  • CallbackURL: The redirect URI defined when you registered your application.
  • InitiateOAuth: Set to GETANDREFRESH to have the driver manage the OAuth token exchange and refresh automatically.

See the Getting Started chapter of the help documentation for a guide to creating a custom OAuth app and using OAuth.

Connect and Transfer

To get started, add the code sample to a new project. You can execute the following command to save all tables without displaying them:

DO C:\Temp\sqldump.prg WITH "CData Anaplan Source", "TESTDB", .f.

Below is the process that the program follows:

  1. Create a new FoxPro database.
  2. Open a connection to Anaplan data with the line below:

    m.hSQLconnection = SQLCONNECT(m.cODBCDSN)
    
  3. If the connection was successful, you can now retrieve the list of tables using the SQLTABLES function. The code below saves the list of tables in sys_tables.dbf:

    WAIT WINDOW "Fetching tables for data source '" + m.cODBCDSN + "'..." NOWAIT NOCLEAR
    m.nSQLTABLES = SQLTABLES(m.hSQLconnection)
    
    IF lUseDistinctConnections
      WAIT WINDOW "Closing ODBC Connection for data source '" + m.cODBCDSN + "'..." NOWAIT NOCLEAR
      SQLDISCONNECT(m.hSQLconnection)
      m.hSQLconnection = 0 * SQLCONNECT needs to be called again
    ENDIF
    
    IF m.nSQLTABLES > 0
      * create local table containing list of tables in db
      COPY TO (m.cImportData + "sys_tables")
      USE
    
      * convert each table to DBF
      USE (m.cImportData + "sys_tables")
      ALTER TABLE DBF("sys_tables") ;
      ADD COLUMN records i ;
      ADD COLUMN dbfname m
    
  4. Scan over each table, saving it to a DBF file. The function ODBCtoDBF stores the table in a DBF file and then opens a grid if the lBrowse parameter is set to true:
    FUNCTION ODBCtoDBF (cTableName as String, cTableType as String, lBrowse as Logical, lhSQLConnection as Integer)
    
      WAIT WINDOW ;
      "Converting " + m.cTableType + ' "' + m.cTableName + '" to DBF...' ;
      NOWAIT NOCLEAR
    
      ACTIVATE SCREEN
    
      * strip characters incompatible with FoxPro out of the name of the DBF file
      m.cTableAlias		= ""
      m.nTableNameLen		= LEN(m.cTableName)
      m.nTableNameStart	= 1
      
      FOR m.nTableNameStart = 1 TO m.nTableNameLen
        m.cCharacter = SUBSTR(m.cTableName, m.nTableNameStart, 1)	
        IF !ISALPHA(m.cCharacter) .and. (m.nTableNameStart = 1 .or. !ISDIGIT(m.cCharacter))
          m.cTableAlias = m.cTableAlias + "_"
        ELSE
          m.cTableAlias = m.cTableAlias + m.cCharacter
        ENDIF
      ENDFOR
    
      m.cFromTable = m.cTableName
      m.cTempViewAlias	= m.cTableType + "_" + m.cTableAlias
    
      LOCAL loException as Exception
      LOCAL lnResultSets
      
      TRY
        * run query
        m.lnResultSets = SQLEXEC(m.lhSQLConnection, ;
          "SELECT * FROM " + m.cFromTable, ;
          m.cTempViewAlias, ;
          aSQLResult)
    	  
        IF m.lnResultSets#1
          SET STEP ON
        ENDIF
    	
        ACTIVATE SCREEN
    
      CATCH TO m.loException
        ACTIVATE SCREEN
        ? "Error opening " + m.cTempViewAlias + ":"
        ? m.loException.Message
        ? m.loException.Details
      ENDTRY
    
      IF !USED(m.cTempViewAlias)
        RETURN
      ENDIF
    
      * copy records from view cursor to disk
      SELECT * FROM (m.cTempViewAlias) ;
        INTO TABLE (m.cImportData + m.cTableAlias)
    
      IF USED(m.cTableAlias)
    
        ACTIVATE SCREEN
    
        FLUSH	&& flush the buffer to write the data to disk
    
        IF m.lBrowse
          * pop the table up on screen
          SELECT (m.cTableAlias)
          BROWSE NORMAL NOMODIFY NOWAIT
          ACTIVATE SCREEN
        ELSE
          * close on-disk table for now
          USE IN (m.cTableAlias)
          ACTIVATE SCREEN
        ENDIF
      ENDIF
    
      IF USED(m.cTempViewAlias)
        USE IN &cTempViewAlias && close SQL view
        ACTIVATE SCREEN
      ENDIF
    
      WAIT CLEAR
    
    ENDFUNC
    
  5. You can now save tables of Anaplan data as DBF files.

Below is the full code, in FoxPro 9 syntax:

PARAMETERS cODBCDSN, cDatabaseName, lBrowseAfterConvert

*	cODBCDSN				The ODBC data source name, used for the name of the folder where the DBF tables are stored.
*	cDatabaseName			The name of the FoxPro database to use. This database is created if it does not exist. The default is DATABASE_NAME.
*								
*	lBrowseAfterConvert		If ".t." display each table with the BROWSE command after importing it. If ".f." close each table before moving on to the next one.

#define		ODBC_DATASOURCE		"DataSourceName"
#define		DATABASE_NAME		"odbcdata"

m.m_tpath = ".\"                && root directory for data

ON ERROR
SET SAFETY OFF

IF VARTYPE(m.cODBCDSN)#"C" .or. EMPTY(m.cODBCDSN)
  m.cODBCDSN = ODBC_DATASOURCE
ENDIF
IF VARTYPE(m.cDatabaseName)#"C" .or. EMPTY(m.cDatabaseName)
  m.cDatabaseName = DATABASE_NAME
ENDIF

m.cImportData = m.cODBCDSN + "\"

CLOSE TABLES ALL
CLOSE DATABASES ALL

IF !DIRECTORY(m.cImportData)
	MKDIR (m.cImportData)
ENDIF

CREATE DATABASE (m.cDatabaseName)
CREATE CONNECTION (m.cDatabaseName) DATASOURCE (m.cODBCDSN) DATABASE (m.cDatabaseName)

WAIT WINDOW "Opening ODBC Connection for data source '" + m.cODBCDSN + "'..." NOWAIT NOCLEAR
m.hSQLconnection = SQLCONNECT(m.cODBCDSN)

IF m.hSQLconnection > 0
  * Connection successful; get list of tables
  WAIT WINDOW "Fetching tables for data source '" + m.cODBCDSN + "'..." NOWAIT NOCLEAR
  m.nSQLTABLES = SQLTABLES(m.hSQLconnection)

  IF m.nSQLTABLES > 0
    * Create local table containing list of tables in db
    COPY TO (m.cImportData + "sys_tables")
    USE

    * Convert each table to DBF
    USE (m.cImportData + "sys_tables")
    ALTER TABLE DBF("sys_tables") ;
    ADD COLUMN records	i ;
    ADD COLUMN dbfname	m

    SCAN	
    m.cCurrentTable	= TRIM(sys_tables.table_name)
    m.cCurrentTableType	= TRIM(sys_tables.table_type) && Valid values are "SYSTEMTABLE", "TABLE", and "VIEW".
    IF m.cCurrentTableType = "TABLE" or m.cCurrentTableType = "VIEW"

      ODBCtoDBF(m.cCurrentTable, m.cCurrentTableType, m.lBrowseAfterConvert, m.hSQLConnection)
    ELSE
      ACTIVATE SCREEN
      ? "ERROR:", m.cCurrentTable, "Couldn't open ODBC connection."
      =MESSAGEBOX("couldn't open data source " + m.cODBCDSN + " for table " + m.cCurrentTable + ".")
    ENDIF

    ENDSCAN
    BROWSE NORMAL NOWAIT

  ELSE
    =MESSAGEBOX("No tables found in data source " + m.cODBCDSN + ".")
    SET STEP ON
  ENDIF
  
  SQLDISCONNECT(m.hSQLconnection)
  
ELSE
  =MESSAGEBOX("Could not open data source " + m.cODBCDSN + ".")
  SET STEP ON
ENDIF

FUNCTION ODBCtoDBF (cTableName as String, cTableType as String, lBrowse as Logical, lhSQLConnection as Integer)

  WAIT WINDOW ;
  "Converting " + m.cTableType + ' "' + m.cTableName + '" to DBF...' ;
  NOWAIT NOCLEAR

  ACTIVATE SCREEN

  * Strip characters incompatible with FoxPro out of the name of the DBF file
  m.cTableAlias		= ""
  m.nTableNameLen		= LEN(m.cTableName)
  m.nTableNameStart	= 1
  
  FOR m.nTableNameStart = 1 TO m.nTableNameLen
    m.cCharacter = SUBSTR(m.cTableName, m.nTableNameStart, 1)	
    IF !ISALPHA(m.cCharacter) .and. (m.nTableNameStart = 1 .or. !ISDIGIT(m.cCharacter))
      m.cTableAlias = m.cTableAlias + "_"
    ELSE
      m.cTableAlias = m.cTableAlias + m.cCharacter
    ENDIF
  ENDFOR

  m.cFromTable = m.cTableName
  m.cTempViewAlias	= m.cTableType + "_" + m.cTableAlias

  LOCAL loException as Exception
  LOCAL lnResultSets
  
  TRY
    * Run query
    m.lnResultSets = SQLEXEC(m.lhSQLConnection, ;
      "SELECT * FROM " + m.cFromTable, ;
      m.cTempViewAlias, ;
      aSQLResult)
	  
    IF m.lnResultSets#1
      SET STEP ON
    ENDIF
	
    ACTIVATE SCREEN

  CATCH TO m.loException
    ACTIVATE SCREEN
    ? "Error opening " + m.cTempViewAlias + ":"
    ? m.loException.Message
    ? m.loException.Details
  ENDTRY

  IF !USED(m.cTempViewAlias)
    RETURN
  ENDIF

  * Copy records from view cursor to disk
  SELECT * FROM (m.cTempViewAlias) ;
    INTO TABLE (m.cImportData + m.cTableAlias)

  IF USED(m.cTableAlias)

    ACTIVATE SCREEN

    FLUSH	&& Flush the buffer to write the data to disk

    IF m.lBrowse
      * Display the table on screen
      SELECT (m.cTableAlias)
      BROWSE NORMAL NOMODIFY NOWAIT
      ACTIVATE SCREEN
    ELSE
      * Close on-disk table
      USE IN (m.cTableAlias)
      ACTIVATE SCREEN
    ENDIF
  ENDIF

  IF USED(m.cTempViewAlias)
    USE IN &cTempViewAlias && Close SQL view
    ACTIVATE SCREEN
  ENDIF

  WAIT CLEAR

ENDFUNC

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the Anaplan ODBC Driver to get started:

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Learn more:

Anaplan Icon Anaplan ODBC Driver

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

Access Anaplan data like you would a database - read, write, and update Anaplan 0, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.