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SAP ByDesign Icon SAP ByDesign ODBC Driver

The SAP ByDesign ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from SAP ByDesign, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access SAP ByDesign data like you would a database - read, write, and update SAP ByDesign Customers, Products, Leads, Suppliers, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

Import SAP ByDesign Data into FileMaker Pro



Create reports that integrate SAP ByDesign data in Filemaker Pro.

One of the strengths of the CData ODBC driver is its ubiquitous support across many applications and platforms. In this article, you will configure the ODBC driver in FileMaker Pro and create data visualizations with SAP ByDesign data.

Query SAP ByDesign Data in FileMaker Pro

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. See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to creating a DSN on Windows or Unix-based systems like Mac OS X and Linux.

Set the following connection properties to connect to SAP ByDesign.

  • Url: Set this to the Url of your SAP ByDesign site. For example, https://test.sapbydesign.com
  • User: Set this to the username of your account.
  • Password: Set this to the password of your account.
  • CustomService or AnalyticsService: Only one of these must be specified. If you have a custom service you want to retrieve data from, specify CustomService. If you want to retrieve the reports of a analytical service, specify AnalyticsService.
    If neither is specified, 'cc_home_analytics.svc' will used as a default for the AnalyticsService property. If you are not sure what service to specify, you can always query the Services view to list available services.

When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

You can then load SAP ByDesign data into tables in Filemaker Pro:

  1. In your solution, click File -> Import Records -> ODBC Data Source, and select the CData SAP ByDesign DSN.
  2. In the resulting SQL Query Builder wizard, select tables and columns and then click Insert into SQL Query. You can edit this query directly. For example:

    SELECT ID, ProductCategoryID FROM [Inventory Balance] WHERE ProductCategoryID = '1234567'

    You can use the UI to build filters in the WHERE clause by clicking the WHERE tab.

  3. In the resulting Import Field Mapping wizard, you can define mappings from columns in the data source to the columns in a destination table. To create a new table for the query results, select New Table ("CData SAPByDesign Source") from the Target box, and click Import.

For more information on the SQL that the driver supports out of the box, see the help documentation.

Process Data at Design Time

You can sort and aggregate data, as well as calculate summary functions, while you browse tables. To manipulate the view of data at design time, first complete the two steps below:

  1. Switch to Browse mode: Click the Mode pop-up menu in the footer of the application.
  2. Switch to Table view: Click the table icon in the View As menu in the main toolbar of the application.

Aggregate and Summarize

Follow the procedure below to group column values and then display a summary, as shown in the screenshot below:

  1. Sort: Click the arrow in the ID column header and then click Sort Ascending in the resulting menu.
  2. Group: In the menu for the ID column click Add Trailing Group by ID to group the values and create a subsequent row where summary calculations can be inserted. Click Add Leading Group to introduce the group with a summary.
  3. Summarize: In the menu for a column that has been grouped, select a summary from the Trailing Subtotals menu.

the procedure below to create a simple bar chart that shows the total ProductCategoryID for each ID.

  1. Click the arrow in the ProductCategoryID column header and click "Chart by ProductCategoryID" in the menu. If you have already grouped on a column in the Table view, ID, for example, you can select the option to chart ProductCategoryID by ID.
  2. In the Chart Setup window, select columns to draw the chart: To add the column for the x-axis, click the button next to the Data box.

Selecting the x-axis and y-axis will draw the chart. You can also process data in the Chart Setup: Set the following options to create a basic chart.

  1. Click the button next to the Data box and select Specify Field Value. Select a column in the resulting dialog.
  2. Select a summary for the y-axis in the Summary menu.