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QuickBooks POS Icon QuickBooks POS ODBC Driver

The QuickBooks ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from Quickbooks Point of Sale, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access QuickBooks POS data like you would a database - read, write, and update QuickBooks Inventory, Transactions, Accounts, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

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DataBind Controls to QuickBooks POS Data in C++Builder


DataBind to QuickBooks POS data in C++Builder with standard components and controls.

The CData ODBC Driver for QuickBooks POS makes it easy to integrate connectivity to live QuickBooks POS data with standard data access components in C++Builder. This article shows how to create a simple visual component library (VCL) application in C++Builder that connects to QuickBooks POS data, executes queries, and displays the results in a grid. An additional section shows how to use FireDAC components to execute commands from code.

Create a Connection to QuickBooks POS Data

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.

When you are connecting to a local QuickBooks instance, you do not need to set any connection properties.

Requests are made to QuickBooks POS through the Remote Connector. The Remote Connector runs on the same machine as QuickBooks POS and accepts connections through a lightweight, embedded Web server. The server supports SSL/TLS, enabling users to connect securely from remote machines.

The first time you connect, you will need to authorize the Remote Connector with QuickBooks POS. See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide.

You can then follow the steps below to use the Data Explorer to create a FireDAC connection to QuickBooks POS.

  1. In a new VCL Forms application, expand the FireDAC node in the Data Explorer.
  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 QuickBooks POS.

Create VCL Applications with Connectivity to QuickBooks POS Data

Follow the procedure below to start querying QuickBooks POS data from a simple VCL application that displays the results of a query in a grid.

  1. Drop a TFDConnection component onto the form and set the following properties:

    • ConnectionDefName: Select the FireDAC connection to QuickBooks POS.
    • Connected: Select True from the menu and, in the dialog that appears, enter your credentials.

  2. Drop a TFDQuery component onto the form and set the properties below:

    • Connection: Set this property to the TFDConnection component, if this component is not already specified.

    • SQL: Click the button in the SQL property and enter a query. For example:

      SELECT ListId, AccountLimit FROM Customers
    • Active: Set this property to true.

  3. Drop a TDataSource component onto the form and set the following property:

    • DataSet: In the menu for this property, select the name of the TFDQuery component.

  4. Drop a TDBGrid control onto the form and set the following property:

    • DataSource: Select the name of the TDataSource.
  5. Drop a TFDGUIxWaitCursor onto the form — this is required to avoid a run-time error.

Execute Commands to QuickBooks POS with FireDAC Components

You can use the TFDConnection and TFQuery components to execute queries to QuickBooks POS data. This section provides QuickBooks POS-specific examples of executing queries with the TFQuery component.

Connect to QuickBooks POS Data

To connect to the data source, set the Connected property of the TFDConnection component to true. You can set the same properties from code:

FDConnection1->ConnectionDefName = "CData QuickBooks POS ODBC Source"; FDConnection1->Connected = true;

To connect the TFDQuery component to QuickBooks POS data, set the Connection property of the component. When a TFDQuery component is added at design time, its Connection property is automatically set to point to a TFDConnection on the form, as in the application above.

Create Parameterized Queries

To create a parameterized query, use the following syntax below:

FDQuery1->SQL->Text = "select * from Customers where lastname = :LastName"; FDQuery1->ParamByName("lastname")->AsString = "Cook"; query->Open();

The example above binds a string-type input parameter by name and then opens the dataset that results.

Prepare the Statement

Preparing statements is costly in system resources and time. The connection must be active and open while a statement is prepared. By default, FireDAC prepares the query to avoid recompiling the same query over and over. To disable statement preparation, set ResourceOptions.DirectExecute to True; for example, when you need to execute a query only once.

Execute a Query

To execute a query that returns a result set, such as a select query, use the Open method. The Open method executes the query, returns the result set, and opens it. The Open method will return an error if the query does not produce a result set.

FDQuery1->SQL->Text := "select * from Customers where lastname = :LastName"; FDQuery1.ParamByName("lastname")->AsString = "Cook"; FDQuery1->Open();

To execute a query that does not return a result set, use the ExecSQL method. The ExecSQL method will return an error if the query returns a result set. To retrieve the count of affected rows use the TFD.RowsAffected property.

FDQ.SQL.Text := "delete from Customers where ListId = :ListId"; FDQuery1->Params->Items[0]->AsString = "x12345"; FDQuery1->ExecSQL(); AnsiString i = FDQuery1->RowsAffected;