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Get the Report →Access SharePoint Data as a Remote Oracle Database
Use the Oracle ODBC Gateway and Heterogeneous Services technology to access SharePoint data from your Oracle system.
The Oracle Database Gateway for ODBC and Heterogeneous Services technology enable you to connect to ODBC data sources as remote Oracle databases. This article shows how to use the CData ODBC Driver for SharePoint to create a database link from SharePoint to Oracle and to query SharePoint data through the SQL*Plus tool. You can also create the database link and execute queries from SQL Developer.
About SharePoint Data Integration
Accessing and integrating live data from SharePoint has never been easier with CData. Customers rely on CData connectivity to:
- Access data from a wide range of SharePoint versions, including Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and above, and SharePoint Online.
- Access all of SharePoint thanks to support for Hidden and Lookup columns.
- Recursively scan folders to create a relational model of all SharePoint data.
- Use SQL stored procedures to upload and download documents and attachments.
Most customers rely on CData solutions to integrate SharePoint data into their database or data warehouse, while others integrate their SharePoint data with preferred data tools, like Power BI, Tableau, or Excel.
For more information on how customers are solving problems with CData's SharePoint solutions, refer to our blog: Drivers in Focus: Collaboration Tools.
Getting Started
Connect to SharePoint as an ODBC Data Source
Information for connecting to SharePoint follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments.
Set the URL property to the base SharePoint site or to a sub-site. This allows you to query any lists and other SharePoint entities defined for the site or sub-site.
The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid SharePoint user credentials when using SharePoint On-Premise.
If you are connecting to SharePoint Online, set the SharePointEdition to SHAREPOINTONLINE along with the User and Password connection string properties. For more details on connecting to SharePoint Online, see the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation
Windows
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.
Note: If you need to modify the DSN or create other SharePoint DSNs, you must use a system DSN and the bitness of the DSN must match your Oracle system. You can access and create 32-bit DSNs on a 64-bit system by opening the 32-bit ODBC Data Source Administrator from C:\Windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe.
Linux
If you are installing the CData ODBC Driver for SharePoint in a Linux environment, the driver installation predefines a system DSN. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties.
/etc/odbc.ini
[CData SharePoint Source]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for SharePoint
Description = My Description
User = myuseraccount
Password = mypassword
Auth Scheme = NTLM
URL = http://sharepointserver/mysite
SharePointEdition = SharePointOnPremise
For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).
Set Connection Properties for Compatibility with Oracle
The driver provides several connection properties that streamline accessing SharePoint data just as you would an Oracle database. Set the following properties when working with SharePoint data in SQL*Plus and SQL Developer. For compatibility with Oracle, you will need to set the following connection properties, in addition to authentication and other required connection properties.
MapToWVarchar=False
Set this property to map string data types to SQL_VARCHAR instead of SQL_WVARCHAR. By default, the driver uses SQL_WVARCHAR to accommodate various international character sets. You can use this property to avoid the ORA-28528 Heterogeneous Services data type conversion error when the Unicode type is returned.
MaximumColumnSize=4000
Set this property to restrict the maximum column size to 4000 characters.
IncludeDualTable=True
Set this property to mock the Oracle DUAL table. SQL Developer uses this table to test the connection.
Linux Configuration
In Linux environments, Oracle uses UTF-8 to communicate with the unixODBC Driver manager, whereas the default driver encoding is UTF-16. To resolve this, open the file /opt/cdata/cdata-driver-for-sharepoint/lib/cdata.odbc.sharepoint.ini in a text editor and set the encoding.
cdata.odbc.sharepoint.ini
[Driver]
DriverManagerEncoding = UTF-8
Configure the ODBC Gateway, Oracle Net, and Oracle Database
Follow the procedure below to set up an ODBC gateway to SharePoint data that enables you to query live SharePoint data as an Oracle database.
-
Create the file initmysharepointdb.ora in the folder oracle-home-directory/hs/admin and add the following setting:
initmysharepointdb.ora
HS_FDS_CONNECT_INFO = "CData SharePoint Sys"
-
Add an entry to the listener.ora file. This file is located in oracle-home-directory/NETWORK/admin.
If you are using the Database Gateway for ODBC, your listener.ora needs to have a SID_LIST_LISTENER entry that resembles the following:
listener.ora
SID_LIST_LISTENER = (SID_LIST = (SID_DESC = (SID_NAME = mysharepointdb) (ORACLE_HOME = your-oracle-home) (PROGRAM = dg4odbc) ) )
If you are using Heterogeneous Services, your listener.ora needs to have a SID_LIST_LISTENER entry that resembles the following:
listener.ora
SID_LIST_LISTENER = (SID_LIST = (SID_DESC = (SID_NAME = mysharepointdb) (ORACLE_HOME = your-oracle-home) (PROGRAM = hsodbc) ) )
-
Add the connect descriptor below in tnsnames.ora, located in oracle-home-directory/NETWORK/admin:
tnsnames.ora
mysharepointdb = (DESCRIPTION= (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=localhost)(PORT=1521)) (CONNECT_DATA=(SID=mysharepointdb)) (HS=OK) )
- Restart the listener.
Test the configuration with the following command:
tnsping mysharepointdb
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Open SQL*Plus and create the database link with the command below:
CREATE DATABASE LINK mysharepointdb CONNECT TO "user" IDENTIFIED BY "password" USING 'mysharepointdb';
You can now execute queries in SQL*Plus like the one below (note the double quotation marks around the table name):
SELECT * from "MyCustomList"@mysharepointdb WHERE Location = 'Chapel Hill';