Rapidly Develop Sentry-Driven Apps with Active Query Builder

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Leverage the Active Query Builder SQL interface and .NET data access to create data-driven WinForms and ASP.NET apps backed by Sentry.

Write standard .NET to expose Sentry data through an SQL interface: Active Query Builder helps developers write SQL interfaces; the CData ODBC Driver for Sentry enables standards-based access to Sentry. This integration uses the Microsoft ADO.NET Provider for ODBC as a bridge between the ODBC Driver and the Active Query Builder objects to build a visual SQL composer.

Connect to Sentry as an ODBC Data Source

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.

Using API Key Authentication

Sentry uses token-based authentication. To obtain an Auth Token:

  1. Log in to your Sentry account at https://sentry.io
  2. Navigate to Settings > Auth Tokens
  3. Click "Create New Token"
  4. Select the required scopes and click "Create Token"
  5. Copy the generated token (it will only be shown once)

After obtaining your Auth Token, set the following connection properties:

  • AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
Set the following in the ProfileSettings connection property:
  • APIKey: Set this to your Sentry Auth Token.
  • OrganizationId: Set this to your Sentry organization slug or ID.

Example Connection String

Profile=C:\profiles\Sentry.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings="APIKey=your_auth_token;OrganizationId=your_org_slug";

Connecting to Sentry

Once the authentication is configured, you can connect to Sentry and query data from any of the available tables such as Organizations, Projects, Issues, and Events.

Use SQL to Interact with Sentry

Follow the steps below to create a WinForms visual query builder.

  1. Open Active Query Builder for .NET WinForms.
  2. In the new Windows Forms project go to the "File" menu and click "Connect..."
  3. Under Database Connections, click "Add..."
  4. Set your desired Connection Name (e.g. CData Sentry), set Connection Type to "ODBC" and locate your previously configured DSN in the "User/System" DSN dropdown.
  5. Click "OK" to save the new connection.
  6. Back in the Database Connection wizard, select the newly created connection and click "OK."
  7. Click "File" > "New Query" to create a QueryBuilder

You can now build queries visually: Double-click a table in the Columns Pane Area and an entity/relationship diagram is displayed in the Query Building Area. Columns that you select in the diagram are added to the query.

Ready to get started?

Connect to live data from Sentry with the API Driver

Connect to Sentry