Feed Sage 50 UK Data into FineReport

The CData JDBC Driver for Sage 50 UK fully implements the JDBC standard and can provide Sage 50 UK data connectivity to a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools and custom applications. In this article, we explain how to set Sage 50 UK data as JDBC data source in FineReport and view Sage 50 UK data as a table in the Report Designer.

Set Up a JDBC Data Source of Sage 50 UK Data

Follow the instruction below to set Sage 50 UK data as a FineReport database connection.

1. Copy the cdata.jdbc.sage50uk.jar file from the lib folder in the CData JDBC Driver for Sage 50 UK installation directory to the lib folder of the FineReport installation directory. You will need to copy the cdata.jdbc.sage50uk.lic file as well.
2. From the Server tab, select Define Data Connection, click to add a new connection, and click JDBC.

Next we will set up the data connection definition in the window.

1. Database: Others
2. JDBC Driver: cdata.jdbc.sage50uk.Sage50UKDriver
3. URL: A standard JDBC connection string using semicolon-separated connection properties.

   Note: Only Sage 50 UK 2012 and above are supported.

   The User and Password properties, under the Connection section, must be set to valid Sage 50 UK user credentials. These values will be the same used to log in to the Sage 50 UK software.

   Additionally, the URL property, under the Connection section, will need to be set to the address of the company dataset desired. To obtain the address, do the following:

   1. If you have not already done so, open the Sage 50 UK software.
   2. Click Tools -> Internet Options.
   3. Select the SData Settings tab.
   4. Click the Details button next to Sage 50 Accounts. A window is displayed containing a list of company names along with the address to their corresponding datasets.
   5. Set the URL property to the value in the address field next to the company desired.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

   For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Sage 50 UK JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.sage50uk.jar

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

   When you configure the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

   A typical JDBC URL is below:

   jdbc:sage50uk:URL=http://your-server:5493/sdata/accounts50/GCRM/your-address;User=Manager;
4. Click Connection pool attributes and set Test before getting connections to No.

Click Test connection to ensure you have configured the connection properly. With the connection to Sage 50 UK set up, you can use it as FineReport data source.

Select Sage 50 UK Data in the Report Designer.

1. Click to add a new template data set and select DB query to open the database query window.
2. Choose the JDBC connection that you created from the dropdown list.
3. The Sage 50 UK entities will appear as tables on the left pane.
4. Write a SELECT statement for the Sage 50 UK data tables and columns that you want to load.
5. Click preview and data is shown as table.

With these simple steps, Sage 50 UK can be used as a JDBC data source in FineReport.