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Get the Report →Connect to Live QuickBooks Online Data in PostGresSQL Interface through CData Connect Cloud
Create a live connection to QuickBooks Online in CData Connect Cloud and connect to your QuickBooks Online data from PostgreSQL.
There are a vast number of PostgreSQL clients available on the Internet. PostgreSQL is a popular interface for data access. When you pair PostgreSQL with CData Connect Cloud, you gain database-like access to live QuickBooks Online data from PostgreSQL. In this article, we walk through the process of connecting to QuickBooks Online data in Connect Cloud and establishing a connection between Connect Cloud and PostgreSQL using a TDS foreign data wrapper (FDW).
CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL Server interface for QuickBooks Online, allowing you to query data from QuickBooks Online without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to QuickBooks Online, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested QuickBooks Online data quickly.
About QuickBooks Online Data Integration
CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from QuickBooks Online. Customers use CData connectivity to:
- Realize high-performance data reads thanks to push-down query optimization for complex operations like filters and aggregations.
- Read, write, update, and delete QuickBooks Online data.
- Run reports, download attachments, and send or void invoices directly from code using SQL stored procedures.
- Connect securely using OAuth and modern cryptography, including TLS 1.2, SHA-256, and ECC.
Many users access live QuickBooks Online data from preferred analytics tools like Power BI and Excel, directly from databases with federated access, and use CData solutions to easily integrate QuickBooks Online data with automated workflows for business-to-business communications.
For more information on how customers are solving problems with CData's QuickBooks Online solutions, refer to our blog: https://www.cdata.com/blog/360-view-of-your-customers.
Getting Started
Connect to QuickBooks Online in Connect Cloud
CData Connect Cloud uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.
- Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
- Select "QuickBooks Online" from the Add Connection panel
- QuickBooks Online uses OAuth to authenticate. Click "Sign in" to authenticate with QuickBooks Online.
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Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add QuickBooks Online Connection page and update the User-based permissions.


Add a Personal Access Token
If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.
- Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
- On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
- Give your PAT a name and click Create.
- The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

Build the TDS Foreign Data Wrapper
The Foreign Data Wrapper can be installed as an extension to PostgreSQL, without recompiling PostgreSQL. The tds_fdw extension is used as an example (https://github.com/tds-fdw/tds_fdw).
- You can clone and build the git repository via something like the following view source:
sudo apt-get install git git clone https://github.com/tds-fdw/tds_fdw.git cd tds_fdw make USE_PGXS=1 sudo make USE_PGXS=1 install
Note: If you have several PostgreSQL versions and you do not want to build for the default one, first locate where the binary for pg_config is, take note of the full path, and then append PG_CONFIG=after USE_PGXS=1 at the make commands. - After you finish the installation, then start the server:
sudo service postgresql start
- Then go inside the Postgres database
psql -h localhost -U postgres -d postgres
Note: Instead of localhost you can put the IP where your PostgreSQL is hosted.
Connect to QuickBooks Online data as a PostgreSQL Database and query the data!
After you have installed the extension, follow the steps below to start executing queries to QuickBooks Online data:
- Log into your database.
- Load the extension for the database:
CREATE EXTENSION tds_fdw;
- Create a server object for QuickBooks Online data:
CREATE SERVER "QuickBooksOnline1" FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER tds_fdw OPTIONS (servername'tds.cdata.com', port '14333', database 'QuickBooksOnline1');
- Configure user mapping with your email and Personal Access Token from your Connect Cloud account:
CREATE USER MAPPING for postgres SERVER "QuickBooksOnline1" OPTIONS (username '[email protected]', password 'your_personal_access_token' );
- Create the local schema:
CREATE SCHEMA "QuickBooksOnline1";
- Create a foreign table in your local database:
#Using a table_name definition: CREATE FOREIGN TABLE "QuickBooksOnline1".Customers ( id varchar, Balance varchar) SERVER "QuickBooksOnline1" OPTIONS(table_name 'QuickBooksOnline.Customers', row_estimate_method 'showplan_all'); #Or using a schema_name and table_name definition: CREATE FOREIGN TABLE "QuickBooksOnline1".Customers ( id varchar, Balance varchar) SERVER "QuickBooksOnline1" OPTIONS (schema_name 'QuickBooksOnline', table_name 'Customers', row_estimate_method 'showplan_all'); #Or using a query definition: CREATE FOREIGN TABLE "QuickBooksOnline1".Customers ( id varchar, Balance varchar) SERVER "QuickBooksOnline1" OPTIONS (query 'SELECT * FROM QuickBooksOnline.Customers', row_estimate_method 'showplan_all'); #Or setting a remote column name: CREATE FOREIGN TABLE "QuickBooksOnline1".Customers ( id varchar, col2 varchar OPTIONS (column_name 'Balance')) SERVER "QuickBooksOnline1" OPTIONS (schema_name 'QuickBooksOnline', table_name 'Customers', row_estimate_method 'showplan_all');
- You can now execute read/write commands to QuickBooks Online:
SELECT id, Balance FROM "QuickBooksOnline1".Customers;
More Information & Free Trial
Now, you have created a simple query from live QuickBooks Online data. For more information on connecting to QuickBooks Online (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect Cloud page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live QuickBooks Online data in PostgreSQL.