How to Connect DBeaver to Blackbaud FE NXT via a JDBC Driver

The CData JDBC Driver for Blackbaud FE NXT implements JDBC standards that enable third-party tools to interoperate, from wizards in IDEs to business intelligence tools. This article shows how to connect to Blackbaud FE NXT data with wizards in DBeaver and browse data in the DBeaver GUI.

Create a JDBC Data Source for Blackbaud FE NXT Data

Follow the steps below to load the driver JAR in DBeaver.

1. Open the DBeaver application and, in the "Database" menu, select the "Driver Manager" option. Click "New" to open the "Create new driver" form.
2. In the Settings tab:
   • Set Driver Name to a user-friendly name for the driver (e.g. CData JDBC Driver for Blackbaud FE NXT).
   • Set Class Name to the class name for the JDBC driver: cdata.jdbc.financialedgenxt.FinancialEdgeNXTDriver.
   • Set URL Template to jdbc:financialedgenxt:.
3. In the Libraries tab, click "Add File," navigate to the "lib" folder in the installation directory (C:\Program Files\CData[product_name] XXXX\) and select the JAR file (cdata.jdbc.FinancialEdgeNXT.jar).

Create a Connection to Blackbaud FE NXT Data

Follow the steps below to add credentials and other required connection properties.

1. In the "Database" menu, click "New Database Connection."
2. In the "Connect to a database" wizard that results, select the driver you just created (e.g. CData JDBC Driver for Blackbaud FE NXT) and click "Next >."
3. On the Main tab of the configuration wizard, set the JDBC URL, using the required connection properties:

   Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, you will need to create an app to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties.

   See the Getting Started guide in the CData driver documentation for more information.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.financialedgenxt.jar

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

   Below is a typical connection string:

   jdbc:financialedgenxt:SubscriptionKey=MySubscriptionKey;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
4. Click "Test Connection ..." to ensure you have configured the connection properly.
5. Click "Finish."

Query Blackbaud FE NXT Data

You can now query information from the tables exposed by the connection: Right-click a Table and then click View Table. The data is available on the Data tab.

More Information & Free Trial