Ready to get started?

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

 Download Now

Learn more:

Dynamics NAV Icon Dynamics NAV ODBC Driver

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

Access Dynamics NAV like you would a database - read, write, and update Items, Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

Dynamics NAV Reporting and Star Schemas in OBIEE



Create a star schema that shows perspectives on Dynamics NAV facts in real time.

The CData ODBC Driver for Dynamics NAV is a standard database driver that can integrate real-time access to Dynamics NAV data into your data warehouse or directly into your reporting tool. This article shows how to bypass the data warehouse and import operational Dynamics NAV data into Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE).

See the knowledge base for ODBC integrations with ETL tools like Informatica PowerCenter. For an ETL solution into Oracle Warehouse Builder, use the driver with the Oracle ODBC Gateway to Access Dynamics NAV Data as a Remote Oracle Database.

Connect to Dynamics NAV 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.

Before you can connect, OData Services will need to be enabled on the server. Once OData Services are enabled, you will be able to query any Services that are published on the server.

The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid Dynamics NAV user credentials. In addition, you will need to specify a URL to a valid Dynamics NAV server organization root and a ServerInstance. If there is not a Service Default Company for the server, you will need to set the Company as well.

When you configure the DSN, 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.

Import Dynamics NAV Metadata

Follow the steps below to use the OBIEE Client Tools to import Dynamics NAV metadata into an OBIEE repository. You can then integrate Dynamics NAV data into your business models.

  1. Open the Administration Tool and click File -> New Repository.

  2. In the Connection Type menu, select ODBC 3.5 and select the CData DSN.
  3. Select the metadata types you want to import under the Relational Sources option and then select Dynamics NAV tables.
You can now create star schemas based on Dynamics NAV tables: