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The Xero ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from Xero accounting software , directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Xero data like you would a database - read, write, and update Xero Customers, Transactions, Invoices, Sales Receipts, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

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Import Real-Time Xero Data in ColdFusion to Build Applications


Use CData ODBC drivers to import and use Xero data in ColdFusion.

Adobe ColdFusion is a web and mobile application development platform. It uses its own scripting language, ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML), to create data-driven websites as well as generate remote services, such as REST. When ColdFusion is paired with the CData ODBC Driver for Xero, you can link your ColdFusion web and mobile applications to operational Xero data. This allows for your applications to be more robust and complete. This article details how to use the ODBC driver to create a table populated with Xero data from within a ColdFusion markup file.

To follow along with this tutorial, you need to install the CData ODBC Driver for Xero and Adobe ColdFusion.

Configuring the Connection

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 process. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

To connect, set the Schema connection property in addition to any authentication values. Xero offers authentication for private applications, public applications, and partner applications. You will need to set the XeroAppAuthentication property to PUBLIC, PRIVATE, or PARTNER, depending on the type of application configured. To connect from a private application, you will additionally need to set the OAuthAccessToken, OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, CertificateStoreType, CertificateStore, and CertificateStorePassword.

To connect from a public or partner application, you can use the embedded OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL, or you can register an app to obtain your own OAuth values.

See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to authenticating to Xero.

Adding a Data Source and Creating a Table

After creating a DSN, follow the steps below to add a new data source, test our connection to it, create a ColdFusion markup file, and, finally, import Xero Xero data and display it in a table in ColdFusion:

  1. From the ColdFusion administrator interface, choose Data & Services.
  2. Here, click "Add New Data Source". The data source name can be any name, provided it conforms to the ColdFusion variable naming conventions. For our ODBC driver, choose "ODBC Socket", then click the "Add" button.
  3. From the ODBC DSN Dropdown menu select CData Xero Sys. Under the Advanced Settings section, leave the Connection String blank. Note that any properties specified in this input field will override the ones specified in the DSN Configuration.
  4. Now, test the connection by pressing the check mark to the left of the CDataXeroODBC data source you just created. When the data source reports an "OK" status, it is ready for use.
  5. Next, create a new ColdFusion Markup file (.cfm) and place it in the wwwroot directory ("C:\ColdFusion2021\cfusion\wwwroot") for ColdFusion.

    The following code queries the data source: 

                
        <cfquery name="XeroQuery" dataSource="CDataXeroODBC"> 
          SELECT * FROM Items 
        </cfquery>
    And a CFTable can be used to quickly output the table in HTML: 
                
          <cftable  
          query = "XeroQuery" 
          border = "1" 
          colHeaders 
          colSpacing = "2" 
          headerLines = "2" 
          HTMLTable 
          maxRows = "500" 
          startRow = "1"> 

          <cfcol header="<b>Name</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="Name"/> 

          <cfcol header="<b>QuantityOnHand</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="QuantityOnHand"/> 

          ...

        </cftable>
    Full code, including the HTML portion is available below: 
                
        <html> 
        <head><title>CData Software | Xero Items Table Demo </title></head> 
        <body> 
        <cfoutput>#ucase("Xero Items Table Demo")#</cfoutput> 
        <cfquery name="XeroQuery" dataSource="CDataXeroODBC"> 

          SELECT * FROM Items 

        </cfquery> 
        <cftable  
          query = "XeroQuery" 
          border = "1" 
          colHeaders 
          colSpacing = "2" 
          headerLines = "2" 
          HTMLTable 
          maxRows = "500" 
          startRow = "1"> 
          <cfcol header="<b>Name</b>" align="Left" width=2 text="Name"/> 

          <cfcol header="<b>QuantityOnHand</b>" align="Left" width=15 text="QuantityOnHand"/> 

          ...

        </cftable> 
        </body> 

        </html>
  6. Finally, run the code in a browser. It produces a table populated with Xero data!

As a note, the CData ODBC Drivers also support parameterized queries using the cfqueryparam element. For example: SELECT * FROM Account WHERE name =

Get Started Today

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData ODBC Driver for Xero and start building Xero-connected applications with Adobe ColdFusion. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.