ETL Sage 50 UK in Oracle Data Integrator

Leverage existing skills by using the JDBC standard to read and write to Sage 50 UK: Through drop-in integration into ETL tools like Oracle Data Integrator (ODI), the CData JDBC Driver for Sage 50 UK connects real-time Sage 50 UK data to your data warehouse, business intelligence, and Big Data technologies.

JDBC connectivity enables you to work with Sage 50 UK just as you would any other database in ODI. As with an RDBMS, you can use the driver to connect directly to the Sage 50 UK APIs in real time instead of working with flat files.

This article walks through a JDBC-based ETL -- Sage 50 UK to Oracle. After reverse engineering a data model of Sage 50 UK entities, you will create a mapping and select a data loading strategy -- since the driver supports SQL-92, this last step can easily be accomplished by selecting the built-in SQL to SQL Loading Knowledge Module.

Install the Driver

To install the driver, copy the driver JAR and .lic file, located in the installation folder, into the ODI appropriate directory:

• UNIX/Linux without Agent: ~/.odi/oracledi/userlib
• UNIX/Linux with Agent: $ODI_HOME/odi/agent/lib
• Windows without Agent: %APPDATA%\Roaming\odi\oracledi\userlib
• Windows with Agent: %APPDATA%\Roaming\odi\agent\lib

Restart ODI to complete the installation.

Reverse Engineer a Model

Reverse engineering the model retrieves metadata about the driver's relational view of Sage 50 UK data. After reverse engineering, you can query real-time Sage 50 UK data and create mappings based on Sage 50 UK tables.

1. In ODI, connect to your repository and click New -> Model and Topology Objects.
2. On the Model screen of the resulting dialog, enter the following information:
   • Name: Enter Sage50UK.
   • Technology: Select Generic SQL (for ODI Version 12.2+, select Microsoft SQL Server).
   • Logical Schema: Enter Sage50UK.
   • Context: Select Global.
3. On the Data Server screen of the resulting dialog, enter the following information:
   • Name: Enter Sage50UK.
   • Driver List: Select Oracle JDBC Driver.
   • Driver: Enter cdata.jdbc.sage50uk.Sage50UKDriver
   • URL: Enter the JDBC URL containing the connection string.

     Note: Only Sage 50 UK 2012 and above are supported.

     The User and Password properties, under the Connection section, must be set to valid Sage 50 UK user credentials. These values will be the same used to log in to the Sage 50 UK software.

     Additionally, the URL property, under the Connection section, will need to be set to the address of the company dataset desired. To obtain the address, do the following:

     1. If you have not already done so, open the Sage 50 UK software.
     2. Click Tools -> Internet Options.
     3. Select the SData Settings tab.
     4. Click the Details button next to Sage 50 Accounts. A window is displayed containing a list of company names along with the address to their corresponding datasets.
     5. Set the URL property to the value in the address field next to the company desired.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Sage 50 UK JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.sage50uk.jar

     Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

     Below is a typical connection string:

     jdbc:sage50uk:URL=http://your-server:5493/sdata/accounts50/GCRM/your-address;User=Manager;
4. On the Physical Schema screen, enter the following information:
   • Name: Select from the Drop Down menu.
   • Database (Catalog): Enter CData.
   • Owner (Schema): If you select a Schema for Sage 50 UK, enter the Schema selected, otherwise enter Sage50UK.
   • Database (Work Catalog): Enter CData.
   • Owner (Work Schema): If you select a Schema for Sage 50 UK, enter the Schema selected, otherwise enter Sage50UK.
5. In the opened model click Reverse Engineer to retrieve the metadata for Sage 50 UK tables.

Edit and Save Sage 50 UK Data

After reverse engineering you can now work with Sage 50 UK data in ODI. To edit and save Sage 50 UK data, expand the Models accordion in the Designer navigator, right-click a table, and click Data. Click Refresh to pick up any changes to the data. Click Save Changes when you are finished making changes.

Create an ETL Project

Follow the steps below to create an ETL from Sage 50 UK. You will load TradingAccounts entities into the sample data warehouse included in the ODI Getting Started VM.

1. Open SQL Developer and connect to your Oracle database. Right-click the node for your database in the Connections pane and click new SQL Worksheet.

   Alternatively you can use SQLPlus. From a command prompt enter the following:

   sqlplus / as sysdba
2. Enter the following query to create a new target table in the sample data warehouse, which is in the ODI_DEMO schema. The following query defines a few columns that match the TradingAccounts table in Sage 50 UK: CREATE TABLE ODI_DEMO.TRG_TRADINGACCOUNTS (FINANCEBALANCE NUMBER(20,0),Name VARCHAR2(255));
3. In ODI expand the Models accordion in the Designer navigator and double-click the Sales Administration node in the ODI_DEMO folder. The model is opened in the Model Editor.
4. Click Reverse Engineer. The TRG_TRADINGACCOUNTS table is added to the model.
5. Right-click the Mappings node in your project and click New Mapping. Enter a name for the mapping and clear the Create Empty Dataset option. The Mapping Editor is displayed.
6. Drag the TRG_TRADINGACCOUNTS table from the Sales Administration model onto the mapping.
7. Drag the TradingAccounts table from the Sage 50 UK model onto the mapping.
8. Click the source connector point and drag to the target connector point. The Attribute Matching dialog is displayed. For this example, use the default options. The target expressions are then displayed in the properties for the target columns.
9. Open the Physical tab of the Mapping Editor and click TRADINGACCOUNTS_AP in TARGET_GROUP.
10. In the TRADINGACCOUNTS_AP properties, select LKM SQL to SQL (Built-In) on the Loading Knowledge Module tab.

You can then run the mapping to load Sage 50 UK data into Oracle.