Connect to Xero Data from Filemaker Pro (Mac)

FileMaker Pro is a cross-platform relational database application that allows users to visually modify a database. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, FileMaker Pro gets access to live Xero data. This article demonstrates how to connect to Xero using Connect Cloud and query Xero data in FileMaker Pro.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL Server interface for Xero, allowing you to query data from Xero without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to Xero, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested Xero data quickly.

Getting Started

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Configure Xero Connectivity for FileMaker Pro

Connectivity to Xero from FileMaker Pro is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Xero data from FileMaker Pro, we start by creating and configuring a Xero connection.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "Xero" from the Add Connection panel
3. Xero uses OAuth to authenticate. Click "Sign in" to authenticate with Xero.
4. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Xero Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
2. On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give your PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

Connect to Xero from FileMaker Pro using Connect Cloud

To establish a connection from FileMaker Pro to the CData Connect Cloud Virtual SQL Server API, follow these steps.

Configure the ODBC Connection to CData Connect Cloud

1. Download and install the Actual ODBC Driver for SQL Server (actualtech.com)
2. Configure a DSN for the Actual ODBC driver by setting the following properties:
   • URL: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: Change the port from 1433 to 14333
   • Username: Your Connect Cloud email address
   • Password: the PAT you created earlier

Query Xero from FileMaker Pro

1. In the SQL Query Builder "SELECT" tab, select the columns to include as part of the query.
2. Open the "WHERE" tab of the SQL Query Builder and select "Show only selected columns."
3. In "Table.Column,"" select a table and a column name.
4. Set the "Operator" to =.
5. Select "Column," and then select the same table and column name as "Table.Column."
6. Click "Insert into SQL Query."
7. If no other modifications to the SQL query are required, click "Execute."

Get CData Connect Cloud

To get live data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your SQL Server database, try CData Connect Cloud today!