Analyze Sage 50 UK Data in R

Access Sage 50 UK data with pure R script and standard SQL on any machine where R and Java can be installed. You can use the CData JDBC Driver for Sage 50 UK and the RJDBC package to work with remote Sage 50 UK data in R. By using the CData Driver, you are leveraging a driver written for industry-proven standards to access your data in the popular, open-source R language. This article shows how to use the driver to execute SQL queries to Sage 50 UK and visualize Sage 50 UK data by calling standard R functions.

Install R

You can match the driver's performance gains from multi-threading and managed code by running the multithreaded Microsoft R Open or by running open R linked with the BLAS/LAPACK libraries. This article uses Microsoft R Open 3.2.3, which is preconfigured to install packages from the Jan. 1, 2016 snapshot of the CRAN repository. This snapshot ensures reproducibility.

Load the RJDBC Package

To use the driver, download the RJDBC package. After installing the RJDBC package, the following line loads the package:

Connect to Sage 50 UK as a JDBC Data Source

You will need the following information to connect to Sage 50 UK as a JDBC data source:

• Driver Class: Set this to cdata.jdbc.sage50uk.Sage50UKDriver
• Classpath: Set this to the location of the driver JAR. By default this is the lib subfolder of the installation folder.

The DBI functions, such as dbConnect and dbSendQuery, provide a unified interface for writing data access code in R. Use the following line to initialize a DBI driver that can make JDBC requests to the CData JDBC Driver for Sage 50 UK:

You can now use DBI functions to connect to Sage 50 UK and execute SQL queries. Initialize the JDBC connection with the dbConnect function.

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.

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

Below is a sample dbConnect call, including a typical JDBC connection string:

Schema Discovery

The driver models Sage 50 UK APIs as relational tables, views, and stored procedures. Use the following line to retrieve the list of tables:

Execute SQL Queries

You can use the dbGetQuery function to execute any SQL query supported by the Sage 50 UK API:

You can view the results in a data viewer window with the following command:

Plot Sage 50 UK Data

You can now analyze Sage 50 UK data with any of the data visualization packages available in the CRAN repository. You can create simple bar plots with the built-in bar plot function: