Access Live Dynamics 365 Business Central Data in TIBCO Data Virtualization

TIBCO Data Virtualization (TDV) is an enterprise data virtualization solution that orchestrates access to multiple and varied data sources. When paired with the CData TIBCO DV Adapter for Dynamics 365 Business Central, you get federated access to live Dynamics 365 Business Central data directly within TIBCO Data Virtualization. This article walks through deploying an adapter and creating a new data source based on Dynamics 365 Business Central.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData TIBCO DV Adapter offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Dynamics 365 Business Central data. When you issue complex SQL queries to Dynamics 365 Business Central, the adapter pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Dynamics 365 Business Central. Its built-in dynamic metadata querying allows you to work with and analyze Dynamics 365 Business Central data using native data types.

Deploy the Dynamics 365 Business Central TIBCO DV Adapter

1. In a console, navigate to the bin folder in the TDV Server installation directory. If there is a current version of the adapter installed, you will need to undeploy it.

   .\server_util.bat -server localhost -user admin -password ******** -undeploy -version 1 -name D365BusinessCentral
   

2. Extract the CData TIBCO DV Adapter to a local folder and deploy the JAR file (tdv.d365businesscentral.jar) to the server from the extract location.

   .\server_util.bat -server localhost -user admin -password ******** -deploy -package /PATH/TO/tdv.d365businesscentral.jar
   

You may need to restart the server to ensure the new JAR file is loaded properly, which can be accomplished by running the composite.bat script located at: C:\Program Files\TIBCO\TDV Server <version>\bin. Note that reauthenticating to the TDV Studio is required after restarting the server.

Sample Restart Call

.\composite.bat monitor restart

Create a Dynamics 365 Business Central Data Source in TDV Studio

With the CData TIBCO DV Adapter for Dynamics 365 Business Central, you can easily create a data source for Dynamics 365 Business Central and introspect the data source to add resources to TDV.

Create the Data Source

1. Right-click on the folder you wish to add the data source to and select New -> New Data Source.
2. Scroll until you find the adapter (e.g. Dynamics 365 Business Central) and click Next.
3. Name the data source (e.g. CData Dynamics 365 Business Central Source).

4. Fill in the required connection properties.

   To authenticate to Dynamics 365 Business Central, you must provide the User and AccessKey properties.

   To obtain the User and AccessKey values, navigate to the Users page in Dynamics 365 Business Central and then click on Edit. The User Name and Web Service Access Key values are what you will enter as the User and AccessKey connection string properties. Note that the User Name is not your email address. It is a shortened user name.

   To connect to data, specify OrganizationUrl. If you have multiple companies in your organization, you must also specify the Company to indicate which company you would like to connect to. Company does not need to be specified if you have only one company.

5. Click Create & Close.

Introspect the Data Source

Once the data source is created, you can introspect the data source by right-clicking and selecting Open. In the dashboard, click Add/Remove Resources and select the Tables, Views, and Stored Procedures to include as part of the data source. Click Next and Finish to add the selected Dynamics 365 Business Central tables, views, and stored procedures as resources.

After creating and introspecting the data source, you are ready to work with Dynamics 365 Business Central data in TIBCO Data Virtualization just like you would any other relational data source. You can create views, query using SQL, publish the data source, and more.