Viewing Square Data in RAD Studio Data Explorer

Embarcadero RAD Studio provides a development environment for Delphi and C++Builder applications. With the CData ODBC Driver for Square, you gain access to live Square data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to both retrieve and update Square data. This article will walk through connecting to Square using the Data Explorer.

Configure a Connection to Square

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.

Square uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, you will need to register an app with Square to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL. See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.

Additionally, you must specify the LocationId. You can retrieve the Ids for your Locations by querying the Locations table. Alternatively, you can set the LocationId in the search criteria of your query.

Connecting to Square Data Using Data Explorer

You can create a simple application for displaying Square data by utilizing the CData FireDAC Components for Square and a new VCL Forms Application:

1. Open the Data Explorer in RAD Studio and expand FireDAC.
2. Right-click the ODBC Data Source node in the Data Explorer.
3. Click Add New Connection.
4. Enter a name for the connection.
5. In the FireDAC Connection Editor that appears, set the DataSource property to the name of the ODBC DSN for Square.
6. Back in the Data Explorer, expand the tables for the connection.

7. Create a new VCL Forms application and drag a table (for example: Refunds) onto the form.

8. Select the RefundsTable object on the form and set the Active property to true.

9. Right-click on the object, bind visually, and link everything (*) to a new control (TStringGrid).

10. Arrange the TStringGrid on the form and run the application to see the Refunds data.

Related Articles

Below you can find other articles for using the CData ODBC Driver with RAD Studio, Delphi, and C++ Builder.

• DataBind Controls to Square Data in C++Builder
• DataBind Controls to Square Data in Delphi
• Build a Simple VCL Application for Square Data