Connect to Front Data in DBeaver
NOTE: The Legacy ODBC driver was removed in DBeaver Community Edition 23.1. As an alternative, you can use a CData JDBC Driver (learn how here: How to Connect DBeaver to Front via JDBC). If you need to use ODBC Drivers, refer to the DBeaver Documentation.
The CData API Driver for ODBC enables access to live data from Front under the ODBC standard, allowing you work with Front data in a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools and directly, using familiar SQL queries. This article shows how to manage Front data with visual tools in DBeaver like the query browser.
The CData ODBC drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live Front data in DBeaver due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from DBeaver to Front, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Front and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. With built-in dynamic metadata querying, you can manage and analyze Front data.
Connect to Front
If you have not already done so, provide values for the required connection properties in the data source name (DSN). You can configure the DSN using the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator. This is also the last step of the driver installation. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the Help documentation for a guide to using the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure a DSN.
Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the Front Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\Front.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Front (see below).
Front API Profile Settings
Generate an API key in Front by navigating to Settings > Plugins & API > API.
Finally, set the "Map To WVarchar connection property to False in the DSN Configuration window for the driver. This configuration will allow string types to be mapped to SQL_VARCHAR and prevent SQL_WVARCHAR types from being displayed as NULL.
Connecting to the Front ODBC Data Source in DBeaver
- Open the DBeaver application and in the Database menu, select the New Database Connection option.
- In the 'Connect to a database' window, select ODBC and click Next.
- In the Database/Schema field, enter the DSN name (CData Front Source by default). It will be automatically added to the JDBC URL as well.
- Click the Test Connection button. You should receive a 'Connected' message after DBeaver has detected the DSN, along with details about the driver if the connection is successful.
Query Front Data
You can now query information from the tables exposed by the data source connection. You can expand the database structure in order to view all the tables. You can retrieve the table's data by right-clicking on a table name and selecting View data. The data will then be available in the Data tab.
Free Trial & More Information
At this point, you have connected to live Front data from DBeaver. For more information, visit the CData ODBC Driver page. Download a free, 30-day trial and start working live Front data DBeaver today.