Build Dynamics 365 Business Central-Connected ETL Processes in Google Data Fusion

Google Data Fusion allows users to perform self-service data integration to consolidate disparate data. Uploading the CData JDBC Driver for Dynamics 365 Business Central enables users to access live Dynamics 365 Business Central data from within their Google Data Fusion pipelines. While the CData JDBC Driver enables piping Dynamics 365 Business Central data to any data source natively supported in Google Data Fusion, this article walks through piping data from Dynamics 365 Business Central to Google BigQuery,

Upload the CData JDBC Driver for Dynamics 365 Business Central to Google Data Fusion

Upload the CData JDBC Driver for Dynamics 365 Business Central to your Google Data Fusion instance to work with live Dynamics 365 Business Central data. Due to the naming restrictions for JDBC drivers in Google Data Fusion, create a copy or rename the JAR file to match the following format driver-version.jar. For example: cdatad365businesscentral-2020.jar

1. Open your Google Data Fusion instance
2. Click the to add an entity and upload a driver
3. On the "Upload driver" tab, drag or browse to the renamed JAR file.
4. On the "Driver configuration" tab:
   • Name: Create a name for the driver (cdata.jdbc.d365businesscentral) and make note of the name
   • Class name: Set the JDBC class name: (cdata.jdbc.d365businesscentral.D365BusinessCentralDriver)
5. Click "Finish"

Connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central Data in Google Data Fusion

With the JDBC Driver uploaded, you are ready to work with live Dynamics 365 Business Central data in Google Data Fusion Pipelines.

1. Navigate to the Pipeline Studio to create a new Pipeline
2. From the "Source" options, click "Database" to add a source for the JDBC Driver
3. Click "Properties" on the Database source to edit the properties

   NOTE: To use the JDBC Driver in Google Data Fusion, you will need a license (full or trial) and a Runtime Key (RTK). For more information on obtaining this license (or a trial), contact our sales team.

   • Set the Label
   • Set Reference Name to a value for any future references (i.e.: cdata-d365businesscentral)
   • Set Plugin Type to "jdbc"
   • Set Connection String to the JDBC URL for Dynamics 365 Business Central. For example:
     
     jdbc:d365businesscentral:RTK=5246...;OrganizationUrl=https://myaccount.financials.dynamics.com/;

     To authenticate to Dynamics 365 Business Central, you must provide the User and AccessKey properties.

     To obtain the User and AccessKey values, navigate to the Users page in Dynamics 365 Business Central and then click on Edit. The User Name and Web Service Access Key values are what you will enter as the User and AccessKey connection string properties. Note that the User Name is not your email address. It is a shortened user name.

     To connect to data, specify OrganizationUrl. If you have multiple companies in your organization, you must also specify the Company to indicate which company you would like to connect to. Company does not need to be specified if you have only one company.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Dynamics 365 Business Central JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.d365businesscentral.jar

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

   • Set Import Query to a SQL query that will extract the data you want from Dynamics 365 Business Central, i.e.:
     SELECT * FROM Accounts
4. From the "Sink" tab, click to add a destination sink (we use Google BigQuery in this example)
5. Click "Properties" on the BigQuery sink to edit the properties
   • Set the Label
   • Set Reference Name to a value like d365businesscentral-bigquery
   • Set Project ID to a specific Google BigQuery Project ID (or leave as the default, "auto-detect")
   • Set Dataset to a specific Google BigQuery dataset
   • Set Table to the name of the table you wish to insert Dynamics 365 Business Central data into

With the Source and Sink configured, you are ready to pipe Dynamics 365 Business Central data into Google BigQuery. Save and deploy the pipeline. When you run the pipeline, Google Data Fusion will request live data from Dynamics 365 Business Central and import it into Google BigQuery.

While this is a simple pipeline, you can create more complex Dynamics 365 Business Central pipelines with transforms, analytics, conditions, and more. Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Dynamics 365 Business Central and start working with your live Dynamics 365 Business Central data in Google Data Fusion today.