Integrate Sugar CRM Data in Pentaho Data Integration

The CData JDBC Driver for Sugar enables access to live data from data pipelines. Pentaho Data Integration is an Extraction, Transformation, and Loading (ETL) engine that data, cleanses the data, and stores data using a uniform format that is accessible.This article shows how to connect to Sugar CRM data as a JDBC data source and build jobs and transformations based on Sugar CRM data in Pentaho Data Integration.

Configure to Sugar CRM Connectivity

The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid SugarCRM user credentials. This will use the default OAuth token created to allow client logins. OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret are required if you do not wish to use the default OAuth token.

You can generate a new OAuth consumer key and consumer secret in Admin -> OAuth Keys. Set the OAuthClientId to the OAuth consumer key. Set the OAuthClientSecret to the consumer secret.

Additionally, specify the URL to the SugarCRM account.

Note that retrieving SugarCRM metadata can be expensive. It is advised that you store the metadata locally as described in the "Caching Metadata" chapter of the help documentation.

Built-in Connection String Designer

For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Sugar CRM 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.

When you configure the JDBC URL, 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.

Below is a typical JDBC URL:

Save your connection string for use in Pentaho Data Integration.

Connect to Sugar CRM from Pentaho DI

Open Pentaho Data Integration and select "Database Connection" to configure a connection to the CData JDBC Driver for Sugar

1. Click "General"
2. Set Connection name (e.g. Sugar CRM Connection)
3. Set Connection type to "Generic database"
4. Set Access to "Native (JDBC)"
5. Set Custom connection URL to your Sugar CRM connection string (e.g.
   jdbc:sugarcrm:User=MyUser;Password=MyPassword;URL=MySugarCRMAccountURL;CacheMetadata=True;
6. Set Custom driver class name to "cdata.jdbc.sugarcrm.SugarCRMDriver"
7. Test the connection and click "OK" to save.

Create a Data Pipeline for Sugar CRM

Once the connection to Sugar CRM is configured using the CData JDBC Driver, you are ready to create a new transformation or job.

1. Click "File" >> "New" >> "Transformation/job"
2. Drag a "Table input" object into the workflow panel and select your Sugar CRM connection.
3. Click "Get SQL select statement" and use the Database Explorer to view the available tables and views.
4. Select a table and optionally preview the data for verification.

At this point, you can continue your transformation or jb by selecting a suitable destination and adding any transformations to modify, filter, or otherwise alter the data during replication.

Free Trial & More Information

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Sugar and start working with your live Sugar CRM data in Pentaho Data Integration today.