Automated Continuous Act CRM Replication to Microsoft Access

Always-on applications rely on automatic failover capabilities and real-time data access. CData Sync integrates live Act CRM data into your Microsoft Access instance, allowing you to consolidate all of your data into a single location for archiving, reporting, analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence and more.

Configure Microsoft Access as a Replication Destination

Using CData Sync, you can replicate Act CRM data to Microsoft Access. To add a replication destination, navigate to the Connections tab.

1. Click Add Connection.
2. Select Microsoft Access as a destination.
3. Enter the necessary connection properties. To connect to Microsoft Access, set the following:
   • Data Source: The path to the Access database. The application must have read/write permissions to the database.
   • Provider: The OLEDB Provider. For MS Office 2007 and above, use Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0.

   Windows Edition

   Connecting to Access as a destination requires the Microsoft Access Database Engine, which can be downloaded from here.

   Be sure to download the correct bitness of the driver as 64bit MS Office only works with the 64bit driver. If using 32bit MS Office, you will need to host DataSync in IIS and enable 32-bit applications. This can be set in the "Advanced Settings" for you Application Pool. Refer to Configuration in IIS for more information on hosting DataSync in IIS.

4. Click Test Connection to ensure that the connection is configured properly.
5. Click Save Changes.

Configure the Act CRM Connection

You can configure a connection to Act CRM from the Connections tab. To add a connection to your Act CRM account, navigate to the Connections tab.

1. Click Add Connection.
2. Select a source (Act CRM).
3. Configure the connection 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.

4. Click Connect to ensure that the connection is configured properly.
5. Click Save Changes.

Configure Replication Queries

CData Sync enables you to control replication with a point-and-click interface and with SQL queries. For each replication you wish to configure, navigate to the Jobs tab and click Add Job. Select the Source and Destination for your replication.

Replicate Entire Tables

To replicate an entire table, click Add Tables in the Tables section, choose the table(s) you wish to replicate, and click Add Selected Tables.

Customize Your Replication

You can use the Columns and Query tabs of a task to customize your replication. The Columns tab allows you to specify which columns to replicate, rename the columns at the destination, and even perform operations on the source data before replicating. The Query tab allows you to add filters, grouping, and sorting to the replication.

Schedule Your Replication

In the Schedule section, you can schedule a job to run automatically, configuring the job to run after specified intervals ranging from once every 10 minutes to once every month.

Once you have configured the replication job, click Save Changes. You can configure any number of jobs to manage the replication of your Act CRM data to Microsoft Access.