Integrating Act CRM Data in Talend Cloud Data Management Platform

Qlik's Talend Cloud Data Management Platform supports various data environments, enabling analytics for smarter decisions, operational data sharing, data and application modernization, and establishing data excellence for risk reduction. When paired with the CData JDBC Driver for Act CRM, you can improve data integration, quality, and governance for your Act CRM Data. This article shows how you can easily integrate to Act CRM using a CData JDBC Driver in Talend Cloud Data Management, and then view the data for simultaneous use in your workflow.

Prerequisites

Before connecting the CData JDBC Driver to view and work with your data in Talend Cloud Data Management Platform, make sure to download and install the latest version of Talend Studio on your system. Also, ensure that you have the required prerequisites.

1. A Talend Cloud Data Management account with appropriate permissions.
2. The CData JDBC Driver for Act CRM, which can be downloaded from the CData website.

Connect to Act CRM in Talend as a JDBC data source

Access Talend Data Management Cloud

1. Run the Talend Cloud Data Management Platform installed on your local system and click on Other Login Mode.
2. Click on Manage Connections. Set Repository to "Local" and enter the Name, Description and User E-mail in the respective spaces. Set the Workspace path and click on OK.
3. Now, select the Create a new project radio button to add a new project name and click on Create.
4. The new project should appear under the Select an existing project section. Click on Open. The Talend Cloud Data Management Platform workspace opens up.

Create a new connection

1. In the navigation pane, locate and expand the Metadata dropdown. Right-click on Db Connections and select Create Connection.
2. Search for and select 'JDBC' in the Find section of the Database Connection window. Then, click on Finish.
3. Enter the Name, Purpose and Description of the new database in Talend where you need to load the Act CRM data. Click on Next.

4. Generate a JDBC URL for connecting to Act CRM, beginning with jdbc:actcrm: followed by a series of semicolon-separated connection string properties.

   The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid Act! user credentials. In addition to the authentication values, see the following:

   • Connecting to Act! Premium

     In addition to the authentication values, the URL to Act! is also required; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/.

     Additionally, you must specify the ActDatabase you will connect to. This is found by going to the About Act! Premium menu of your account, at the top right of the page, in the ? menu. Use the Database Name in the window that appears.

   • Connecting to Act! Premium Cloud

     To connect to your Act! Premium Cloud account, you also need to specify the ActCloudName property. This property is found in the URL address of the Cloud account; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/ActCloudName/.

   Note that retrieving ActCRM metadata can be expensive. It is advised that you set the CacheMetadata property to store the metadata locally.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

   For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Act CRM JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.actcrm.jar

   Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

   A typical JDBC URL is below:

   jdbc:actcrm:URL=https://myActCRMserver.com;User=myUser;Password=myPassword;ActDatabase=MyDB;

5. Enter the JDBC URL copied from CData JDBC Driver for Act CRM in Edit new database.

6. Click on the "(+) Add" button under Drivers. A 'newLine' will appear in the Drivers board. Click on (...) at the end of the new line, select the Install a new module radio button, and click on (...) to add the path to the JAR file, located in the 'lib' subfolder of the installation directory. Click on OK.
7. Select the Driver Class as cdata.jdbc.actcrm (JAR file obtained from your installation directory given in the previous step).

Test the new connection

1. Click on Check Connection. If the entered details are correct, a "Connection successful" confirmation prompt will appear. Click on "OK" and "Finish".
2. Once the connection is established, right-click on the newly created connection and select Retrieve Schema. You can use the filters as well to retrieve the data as per your requirements. Click on Next.
3. Expand the "CData" catalog in the Schema window and select the tables you want to import from the Act CRM schema. Click on Next.
4. In the next step, select the columns you want to view from the table and click on Finish.
5. All the selected tables from the Act CRM schema are now populated under the Table Schemas section of the JDBC connection.
6. Right-click on any of the selected tables and click on Data Viewer to preview the data from the data source.

Get Started Today

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Act CRM and integrate Act CRM data into Talend Cloud Data Management Platform. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.