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Consume Reckon Accounts Hosted OData Feeds in PowerBuilder
This article demonstrates how to consume Reckon Accounts Hosted data as OData feeds from PowerBuilder using the API Server.
The CData API Server produces secure feeds of Reckon Accounts Hosted data that you can consume in PowerBuilder DataWindows. The API Server supports the major Web services, including OData, Atom, JSON, HTML, CSV, TSV, and RSS. It also supports the major authentication schemes and SSL.
This article shows how to create a DataWindow that uses the CData API Server to execute reads and writes.
Set Up the API Server
Follow the steps below to begin producing secure Reckon Accounts Hosted OData services:
Deploy
The API Server runs on your own server. On Windows, you can deploy using the stand-alone server or IIS. On a Java servlet container, drop in the API Server WAR file. See the help documentation for more information and how-tos.
The API Server is also easy to deploy on Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2, and Heroku.
Connect to Reckon Accounts Hosted
After you deploy the API Server, provide authentication values and other connection properties needed to connect to Reckon Accounts Hosted by clicking Settings -> Connections and adding a new connection in the API Server administration console.
The connector makes requests to Reckon Accounts Hosted through OAuth. Specify the following connection properties:
- SubscriptionKey: Required. You get this value when you created your developer account.
- CountryVersion: Defaults to 2021.R2.AU.
- CompanyFile: Required. The path to the company file.
- User: Required. The username of the company file.
- Password: Required. The password of the company file.
- InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH to let the driver handle access tokens.
- CallbackURL: The redirectURI of your Custom OAuth App.
- OAuthClientId: The client id of your Custom OAuth App.
- OAuthClientSecret: The client secret of your Custom OAuth App.
CData provides an embedded OAuth application that simplifies OAuth desktop authentication. See the Help documentation for information on other OAuth authentication methods (web, headless, etc.), creating custom OAuth applications, and reasons for doing so.
You can then choose the Reckon Accounts Hosted entities you want to allow the API Server access to by clicking Settings -> Resources.
Additionally, click Settings -> Server and change the following settings for compatibility with PowerBuilder:
- Default Format: Select XML (Atom) in the menu.
- Default Version: Select 2.0 in the menu.
Authorize API Server Users
After determining the OData services you want to produce, authorize users by clicking Settings -> Users. The API Server uses authtoken-based authentication and supports the major authentication schemes. Access can also be restricted based on IP address; by default, only connections to the local machine are allowed. You can authenticate as well as encrypt connections with SSL.
Create a Profile for Reckon Accounts Hosted
Follow the steps below to use the Database Painter tool to create a database profile for the OData API of the API Server. In the Database Painter, you can graphically manipulate data as well as execute SQL queries.
- Click Tools -> Database Painter.
- Right-click the OData node and click New Profile.
- In the Database Profile Setup dialog, enter the following:
- Profile Name: Enter a user-friendly name for the profile.
- URI: Enter the URL to the OData endpoint of the API Server. This URL will resemble the one below:
http://MyServer:8032/api.rsc - Supply User Id and Password: Click this option to use HTTP Basic authentication. Note that the API Server also supports Windows authentication.
- User Id: Enter the name of an user in the API Server.
- Password: Enter the authtoken of an user in the API Server.
- To view and modify a table, right-click a table and then click Edit Data -> Grid.
Using Reckon Accounts Hosted Data with PowerBuilder Controls
You can use standard PowerBuilder objects to connect to OData feeds and execute queries. The following example shows how to retrieve Reckon Accounts Hosted data into a DataWindow.
You can add the following code to the open method:
SQLCA.DBMS = "ODT"
SQLCA.DBParm = "ConnectString='URI=http://MyServer:8032/api.rsc;UID=MyAPIUser;PWD=MyAuthtoken'";
CONNECT USING SQLCA;
dw_accounts.SetTransObject(SQLCA);
dw_accounts.Retrieve();
