Integrate Dynamics 365 Business Central Data in Pentaho Data Integration

The CData JDBC Driver for Dynamics 365 Business Central enables access to live data from data pipelines. Pentaho Data Integration is an Extraction, Transformation, and Loading (ETL) engine that data, cleanses the data, and stores data using a uniform format that is accessible.This article shows how to connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central data as a JDBC data source and build jobs and transformations based on Dynamics 365 Business Central data in Pentaho Data Integration.

Configure to Dynamics 365 Business Central Connectivity

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.

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

When you configure the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

Below is a typical JDBC URL:

Save your connection string for use in Pentaho Data Integration.

Connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central from Pentaho DI

Open Pentaho Data Integration and select "Database Connection" to configure a connection to the CData JDBC Driver for Dynamics 365 Business Central

1. Click "General"
2. Set Connection name (e.g. Dynamics 365 Business Central Connection)
3. Set Connection type to "Generic database"
4. Set Access to "Native (JDBC)"
5. Set Custom connection URL to your Dynamics 365 Business Central connection string (e.g.
   jdbc:d365businesscentral:OrganizationUrl=https://myaccount.financials.dynamics.com/;
6. Set Custom driver class name to "cdata.jdbc.d365businesscentral.D365BusinessCentralDriver"
7. Test the connection and click "OK" to save.

Create a Data Pipeline for Dynamics 365 Business Central

Once the connection to Dynamics 365 Business Central is configured using the CData JDBC Driver, you are ready to create a new transformation or job.

1. Click "File" >> "New" >> "Transformation/job"
2. Drag a "Table input" object into the workflow panel and select your Dynamics 365 Business Central connection.
3. Click "Get SQL select statement" and use the Database Explorer to view the available tables and views.
4. Select a table and optionally preview the data for verification.

At this point, you can continue your transformation or jb by selecting a suitable destination and adding any transformations to modify, filter, or otherwise alter the data during replication.

Free Trial & More Information

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 Pentaho Data Integration today.