Consume Wave Financial OData Feeds in PowerBuilder



This article demonstrates how to consume Wave Financial data as OData feeds from PowerBuilder using the API Server.

The CData API Server produces secure feeds of Wave Financial data that you can consume in PowerBuilder DataWindows. The API Server supports the major Web services, including OData, Atom, JSON, HTML, CSV, TSV, and RSS. It also supports the major authentication schemes and SSL.

This article shows how to create a DataWindow that uses the CData API Server to execute reads and writes.

Set Up the API Server

Follow the steps below to begin producing secure Wave Financial OData services:

Deploy

The API Server runs on your own server. On Windows, you can deploy using the stand-alone server or IIS. On a Java servlet container, drop in the API Server WAR file. See the help documentation for more information and how-tos.

The API Server is also easy to deploy on Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2, and Heroku.

Connect to Wave Financial

After you deploy the API Server, provide authentication values and other connection properties needed to connect to Wave Financial by clicking Settings -> Connections and adding a new connection in the API Server administration console.

Connect using the API Token

You can connect to Wave Financial by specifying the APIToken You can obtain an API Token using the following steps:

  1. Log in to your Wave account and navigate to "Manage Applications" in the left pane.
  2. Select the application that you would like to create a token for. You may need to create an application first.
  3. Click the "Create token" button to generate an APIToken.

Connect using OAuth

If you wish, you can connect using the embedded OAuth credentials. See the Help documentation for more information.

You can then choose the Wave Financial entities you want to allow the API Server access to by clicking Settings -> Resources.

Additionally, click Settings -> Server and change the following settings for compatibility with PowerBuilder:

  • Default Format: Select XML (Atom) in the menu.
  • Default Version: Select 2.0 in the menu.

Authorize API Server Users

After determining the OData services you want to produce, authorize users by clicking Settings -> Users. The API Server uses authtoken-based authentication and supports the major authentication schemes. Access can also be restricted based on IP address; by default, only connections to the local machine are allowed. You can authenticate as well as encrypt connections with SSL.

Create a Profile for Wave Financial

Follow the steps below to use the Database Painter tool to create a database profile for the OData API of the API Server. In the Database Painter, you can graphically manipulate data as well as execute SQL queries.

  1. Click Tools -> Database Painter.
  2. Right-click the OData node and click New Profile.
  3. In the Database Profile Setup dialog, enter the following:
    • Profile Name: Enter a user-friendly name for the profile.
    • URI: Enter the URL to the OData endpoint of the API Server. This URL will resemble the one below: http://MyServer:8032/api.rsc
    • Supply User Id and Password: Click this option to use HTTP Basic authentication. Note that the API Server also supports Windows authentication.
    • User Id: Enter the name of an user in the API Server.
    • Password: Enter the authtoken of an user in the API Server.
  4. To view and modify a table, right-click a table and then click Edit Data -> Grid.

Using Wave Financial Data with PowerBuilder Controls

You can use standard PowerBuilder objects to connect to OData feeds and execute queries. The following example shows how to retrieve Wave Financial data into a DataWindow.

You can add the following code to the open method:

SQLCA.DBMS = "ODT" SQLCA.DBParm = "ConnectString='URI=http://MyServer:8032/api.rsc;UID=MyAPIUser;PWD=MyAuthtoken'"; CONNECT USING SQLCA; dw_invoices.SetTransObject(SQLCA); dw_invoices.Retrieve();

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CData API Server