Viewing Factorial Data in RAD Studio Data Explorer

Embarcadero RAD Studio provides a development environment for Delphi and C++Builder applications. With the CData ODBC Driver for Factorial, you gain access to live Factorial data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to both retrieve Factorial data. This article will walk through connecting to Factorial using the Data Explorer.

Configure a Connection to Factorial

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.

Authentication

Factorial uses OAuth 2.0 for authentication to connect to your HR data or to allow other users to connect to their data.

Using OAuth Authentication

To connect using OAuth, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to your Factorial admin panel and create a new OAuth application.
2. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret from your application configuration.
3. Configure the following connection properties:

After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

• AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
• OAuthClientId: Set this to your OAuth Client ID.
• OAuthClientSecret: Set this to your OAuth Client Secret.
• Scope: Set this to specify the data access permissions (default: "read write").

Connecting to Factorial Data Using Data Explorer

You can create a simple application for displaying Factorial data by utilizing the CData FireDAC Components for Factorial and a new VCL Forms Application:

1. Open the Data Explorer in RAD Studio and expand FireDAC.
2. Right-click the ODBC Data Source node in the Data Explorer.
3. Click Add New Connection.
4. Enter a name for the connection.
5. In the FireDAC Connection Editor that appears, set the DataSource property to the name of the ODBC DSN for Factorial.
6. Back in the Data Explorer, expand the views for the connection.

7. Create a new VCL Forms application and drag a view (for example: Agreements) onto the form.

   
8. Select the AgreementsView object on the form and set the Active property to true.

9. Right-click on the object, bind visually, and link everything (*) to a new control (TStringGrid).

   

10. Arrange the TStringGrid on the form and run the application to see the Agreements data.

    

Related Articles

Below you can find other articles for using the CData ODBC Driver with RAD Studio, Delphi, and C++ Builder.

• DataBind Controls to Factorial Data in C++Builder
• DataBind Controls to Factorial Data in Delphi
• Build a Simple VCL Application for Factorial Data