OData Connector for SAP Crystal Reports

In this article you will learn how to integrate OData data in SAP Crystal Reports without coding in just a few clicks (live / bi-directional connection to OData). OData Connector can be used to integrated any REST API which supports OData Standard. You can view tables, read data from tables using this connector. It also comes with some example OData Services to get started..

Using OData Connector you will be able to connect, read, and write data from within SAP Crystal Reports. Follow the steps below to see how we would accomplish that.

Download Documentation

The driver mentioned above is part of ODBC PowerPack which is a collection of high-performance Drivers for various API data source (i.e. REST API, JSON, XML, CSV, Amazon S3 and many more). Using familiar SQL query language you can make live connections and read/write data from API sources or JSON / XML / CSV Files inside SQL Server (T-SQL) or your favorite Reporting (i.e. Power BI, Tableau, Qlik, SSRS, MicroStrategy, Excel, MS Access), ETL Tools (i.e. Informatica, Talend, Pentaho, SSIS). You can also call our drivers from programming languages such as JAVA, C#, Python, PowerShell etc.

If you are new to ODBC and ZappySys ODBC PowerPack then check the following links to get started.

Connect to OData in other apps

Connect to OData in SSIS

Connect to OData in SQL Server

Connect to OData in Power BI

Connect to OData in SSRS

Connect to OData in Informatica

Connect to OData in MS Access

Connect to OData in MS Excel

Connect to OData in SSAS

Connect to OData in C#

Connect to OData in Python

Connect to OData in JAVA

Connect to OData in Tableau

Connect to OData in Azure Data Factory (Pipeline)

Connect to OData in Azure Data Factory (SSIS)

Connect to OData in Talend Studio

Connect to OData in UiPath

Connect to OData in PowerShell

Connect to OData in ODBC

Create ODBC Data Source (DSN) based on ZappySys API Driver

Step-by-step instructions

To get data from OData using SAP Crystal Reports we first need to create a DSN (Data Source) which will access data from OData. We will later be able to read data using SAP Crystal Reports. Perform these steps:

Install ZappySys ODBC PowerPack.
Open ODBC Data Sources (x64):
Create a User Data Source (User DSN) based on ZappySys API Driver

ZappySys API Driver

You should create a System DSN (instead of a User DSN) if the client application is launched under a Windows System Account, e.g. as a Windows Service. If the client application is 32-bit (x86) running with a System DSN, use ODBC Data Sources (32-bit) instead of the 64-bit version.
When the Configuration window appears give your data source a name if you haven't done that already, then select "OData" from the list of Popular Connectors. If "OData" is not present in the list, then click "Search Online" and download it. Then set the path to the location where you downloaded it. Finally, click Continue >> to proceed with configuring the DSN:

OdataDSN

OData

Now it's time to configure the Connection Manager. Select Authentication Type, e.g. Token Authentication. Then select API Base URL (in most cases, the default one is the right one). More info is available in the Authentication section.

No Authentication [Http]

Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:

OdataDSN

OData

No Authentication [Http]

https://services.odata.org/V3/Northwind/Northwind.svc

Optional Parameters
RetryMode	RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
RetryStatusCodeList	429
RetryCountMax	5
RetryMultiplyWaitTime	True
IgnoreSSLCertificateErrors
SslVersion

Windows Authentication [Http]

Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:

OdataDSN

OData

Windows Authentication [Http]

https://services.odata.org/V3/Northwind/Northwind.svc

This Authentication Type has no parameters to fill-in.

Basic Authentication [Http]

Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:

OdataDSN

OData

Basic Authentication [Http]

https://services.odata.org/V3/Northwind/Northwind.svc

Required Parameters
UserName	Fill-in the parameter...
Password	Fill-in the parameter...
Optional Parameters
RetryMode	RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
RetryStatusCodeList	429
RetryCountMax	5
RetryMultiplyWaitTime	True
IgnoreSSLCertificateErrors
SslVersion

NTLM Authentication [Http]

Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:

OdataDSN

OData

NTLM Authentication [Http]

https://services.odata.org/V3/Northwind/Northwind.svc

Required Parameters
UserName (i.e. Domain\UserName)	Fill-in the parameter...
Password	Fill-in the parameter...
Optional Parameters
RetryMode	RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
RetryStatusCodeList	429
RetryCountMax	5
RetryMultiplyWaitTime	True
IgnoreSSLCertificateErrors
SslVersion

Token Authentication [Http]

Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:

OdataDSN

OData

Token Authentication [Http]

https://services.odata.org/V3/Northwind/Northwind.svc

Required Parameters
Token	Fill-in the parameter...
Optional Parameters
AuthScheme	Bearer
AuthHeader	Authorization
RetryMode	RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
RetryStatusCodeList	429
RetryCountMax	5
RetryMultiplyWaitTime	True
IgnoreSSLCertificateErrors
SslVersion

OAuth Connection for OData API [OAuth]

Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:

OdataDSN

OData

OAuth Connection for OData API [OAuth]

https://services.odata.org/V3/Northwind/Northwind.svc

Optional Parameters
GrantType	Default
OAuthVersion	Default
ClientId
ClientSecret
UserName
Password
Scope
AuthUrl	https://some-domain.com/api/auth
TokenUrl	https://some-domain.com/api/token
ReturnUrl	https://zappysys.com/oauth
ExtraAttributesForTokenRequest
ExtraAttributesForAuthRequest
DoNotIncludeCredentialsInHeader
DoNotIncludeCredentialsInBody
RenewBeforeSec
ExtraHeaders (e.g. x-hdr1:AAA\|\|x-hdr2:BBB)
ContentType
EnableCodeVerifier
RemoveAuthHeader
CustomAuthHeader
CustomTokenPrefix
RetryMode	RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
RetryStatusCodeList	429
RetryCountMax	5
RetryMultiplyWaitTime	True
IgnoreSSLCertificateErrors
SslVersion

Once the data source has been configured, you can preview data. Select the Preview tab and use settings similar to the following to preview data:
Click OK to finish creating the data source.

Video instructions

Watch this video on YouTube

Read data in SAP Crystal Reports from the ODBC data source

First of all, open SAP Crystal Reports and create the new Crystal Report.
And it will open the new data source selection window. Under ODBC(RDO) double click on the Make New Connection and Select the desired ODBC DSN, in our case we need to select OdataDSN which we created in upper section. And Click on Next.

OdataDSN
Expand the Connection and under the data select the desired table(s) or view(s) and click Add > button and click on Next.

OdataDSN

OdataDSN
Add the desired Fields to Display in the Reports. Here we are adding all fields and click on Finish.
That's it and you will be able to load the data in the Report.

Using ZappySys Driver Custom Views and Stored Procedure in SAP Crystal Report

You can create parameterized Stored Procedure and Virtual Tables on the same Data Source (ODBC DSN or Data Gateway Data Source). Please refer to this article for the same. You can create procedures to encapsulate custom logic and then only pass handful parameters rather than long SQL to execute your API call.

Using Custom Views in the SAP Crystal Report

After establishing the connection with OdataDSN Data Source you can use the custom view in SQL Crystal Report.

OdataDSN

Using Custom Stored Procedure in the SAP Crystal Report

First of all, create the custom stored procedure in the ZappySys Driver. Please refer to this article to create the custom stored procedure.
After establishing the connection with OdataDSN Data Source you can use the custom Stored Procedure in SQL Crystal Report. Same way you can write custom queries also in the query box.

OdataDSN

Advanced topics

Create Custom Stored Procedure in ZappySys Driver

You can create procedures to encapsulate custom logic and then only pass handful parameters rather than long SQL to execute your API call.

Steps to create Custom Stored Procedure in ZappySys Driver. You can insert Placeholders anywhere inside Procedure Body. Read more about placeholders here

Go to Custom Objects Tab and Click on Add button and Select Add Procedure:
Enter the desired Procedure name and click on OK:
Select the created Stored Procedure and write the your desired stored procedure and Save it and it will create the custom stored procedure in the ZappySys Driver:
Here is an example stored procedure for ZappySys Driver. You can insert Placeholders anywhere inside Procedure Body. Read more about placeholders here
```
CREATE PROCEDURE [usp_get_orders]
    @fromdate = '<<yyyy-MM-dd,FUN_TODAY>>'
 AS
    SELECT * FROM Orders where OrderDate >= '<@fromdate>';
```
That's it now go to Preview Tab and Execute your Stored Procedure using Exec Command. In this example it will extract the orders from the date 1996-01-01:
```
Exec usp_get_orders '1996-01-01';
```
Let's generate the SQL Server Query Code to make the API call using stored procedure. Go to Code Generator Tab, select language as SQL Server and click on Generate button the generate the code.
As we already created the linked server for this Data Source, in that you just need to copy the Select Query and need to use the linked server name which we have apply on the place of [MY_API_SERVICE] placeholder.
```
SELECT * FROM OPENQUERY([MY_API_SERVICE], 'EXEC usp_get_orders @fromdate=''1996-07-30''')
```
Now go to SQL served and execute that query and it will make the API call using stored procedure and provide you the response.

Create Custom Virtual Table in ZappySys Driver

ZappySys API Drivers support flexible Query language so you can override Default Properties you configured on Data Source such as URL, Body. This way you don't have to create multiple Data Sources if you like to read data from multiple EndPoints. However not every application support supplying custom SQL to driver so you can only select Table from list returned from driver.

If you're dealing with Microsoft Access and need to import data from an SQL query, it's important to note that Access doesn't allow direct import of SQL queries. Instead, you can create custom objects (Virtual Tables) to handle the import process.

Many applications like MS Access, Informatica Designer wont give you option to specify custom SQL when you import Objects. In such case Virtual Table is very useful. You can create many Virtual Tables on the same Data Source (e.g. If you have 50 URLs with slight variations you can create virtual tables with just URL as Parameter setting.

Go to Custom Objects Tab and Click on Add button and Select Add Table:
Enter the desired Table name and click on OK:
And it will open the New Query Window Click on Cancel to close that window and go to Custom Objects Tab.
Select the created table, Select Text Type AS SQL and write the your desired SQL Query and Save it and it will create the custom table in the ZappySys Driver:
Here is an example SQL query for ZappySys Driver. You can insert Placeholders also. Read more about placeholders here
```
SELECT
  "ShipCountry",
  "OrderID",
  "CustomerID",
  "EmployeeID",
  "OrderDate",
  "RequiredDate",
  "ShippedDate",
  "ShipVia",
  "Freight",
  "ShipName",
  "ShipAddress",
  "ShipCity",
  "ShipRegion",
  "ShipPostalCode"
FROM "Orders"
Where "ShipCountry"='USA'
```
That's it now go to Preview Tab and Execute your custom virtual table query. In this example it will extract the orders for the USA Shipping Country only:
```
SELECT * FROM "vt__usa_orders_only"
```
Let's generate the SQL Server Query Code to make the API call using stored procedure. Go to Code Generator Tab, select language as SQL Server and click on Generate button the generate the code.
As we already created the linked server for this Data Source, in that you just need to copy the Select Query and need to use the linked server name which we have apply on the place of [MY_API_SERVICE] placeholder.
```
SELECT * FROM OPENQUERY([MY_API_SERVICE], 'EXEC [usp_get_orders] ''1996-01-01''')
```
Now go to SQL served and execute that query and it will make the API call using stored procedure and provide you the response.

Actions supported by OData Connector

OData Connector support following actions for REST API integration. If some actions are not listed below then you can easily edit Connector file and enhance out of the box functionality.

List Tables (JSON API)

[Read more...]

List Tables (XML API)

[Read more...]

Generic Read Data (JSON API)

[Read more...]

Parameter	Description
TableName	Read data from specified module (Json Format API)

Generic Read Data (XML API)

[Read more...]

Parameter	Description
TableName	Read data from specified module (Xml Format API)

Read [$parent.name$]

[Read more...]

Generic Request

This is generic endpoint. Use this endpoint when some actions are not implemented by connector. Just enter partial URL (Required), Body, Method, Header etc. Most parameters are optional except URL. [Read more...]

Parameter

Description

Url

API URL goes here. You can enter full URL or Partial URL relative to Base URL. If it is full URL then domain name must be part of ServiceURL or part of TrustedDomains

Body

Request Body content goes here

IsMultiPart

Set this option if you want to upload file(s) (i.e. POST RAW file data) or send data using Multi-Part encoding method (i.e. Content-Type: multipart/form-data). Multi-Part request allows you to mix key/value and upload files in same request. On the other hand raw upload allows only single file upload (without any key/value) ==== Raw Upload (Content-Type: application/octet-stream) ===== To upload single file in raw mode check this option and specify full file path starting with @ sign in the Body (e.g. @c:\data\myfile.zip ) ==== Form-Data / Multipart Upload (Content-Type: multipart/form-data) ===== To treat your Request data as multi part fields you must specify key/value pairs separated by new lines into RequestData field (i.e. Body). Each key value pair is entered on new-line and key/value are separated using equal sign (=). Preceding and trailing spaces are ignored also blank lines are ignored. If field value has some any special character(s) then use escape sequence (e.g. For NewLine: \r\n, For Tab: \t, For at (@): \@). When value of any field starts with at sign (@) its automatically treated as File you want to upload. By default file content type is determined based on extension however you can supply content type manually for any field using this way [ YourFileFieldName.Content-Type=some-content-type ]. By default File Upload Field always includes Content-Type in the request (non file fields do not have content-type by default unless you supply manually). For some reason if you dont want to use Content-Type header in your request then supply blank Content-Type to exclude this header altogather [e.g. SomeFieldName.Content-Type= ]. In below example we have supplied Content-Type for file2 and SomeField1, all other fields are using default content-type. See below Example of uploading multiple files along with additional fields. If some API requires you to pass Content-Type: multipart/form-data rather than multipart/form-data then manually set Request Header => Content-Type: multipart/mixed (it must starts with multipart/ else will be ignored). file1=@c:\data\Myfile1.txt file2=@c:\data\Myfile2.json file2.Content-Type=application/json SomeField1=aaaaaaa SomeField1.Content-Type=text/plain SomeField2=12345 SomeFieldWithNewLineAndTab=This is line1\r\nThis is line2\r\nThis is \ttab \ttab \ttab SomeFieldStartingWithAtSign=\@MyTwitterHandle

Filter

Enter filter to extract array from response. Example: $.rows[*] --OR-- $.customers[*].orders[*]. Check your response document and find out hierarchy you like to extract

Option	Value
No filter
Example1	$.store.books[*]
Example2 (Sections Under Books)	$.store.books[].sections[]
Example3 (Equals)	$.store.books[?(@author=='sam')]
Example4 (Equals - Any Section)	$..[?(@author=='sam')]
Example5 (Not Equals - Any Section)	$..[?(@author!='sam')]
Example6 (Number less than)	$.store.books[?(@.price<10)] Example7 (Regular Expression - Contains Pattern)=$.store.books[?(@author=~ /sam\|bob/ )]
Example8 (Regular Expression - Does Not Contain Pattern)	$.store.books[?(@author=~ /^((?!sam\|bob).)*$/ )]
Example9 (Regular Expression - Exact Pattern Match)	$.store.books[?(@author=~ /^sam\|bob$/ )]
Example10 (Regular Expression - Starts With)	$.store.books[?(@author=~ /^sam/ )]
Example11 (Regular Expression - Ends With)	$.store.books[?(@author=~ /sam$/ )]
Example12 (Between)	$.store.employees[?( @.hiredate>'2015-01-01' && @.hiredate<'2015-01-04' )]

Headers

Headers for Request. To enter multiple headers use double pipe or new line after each {header-name}:{value} pair

Generic Request (Bulk Write)

This is a generic endpoint for bulk write purpose. Use this endpoint when some actions are not implemented by connector. Just enter partial URL (Required), Body, Method, Header etc. Most parameters are optional except URL. [Read more...]

Parameter	Description
Url	API URL goes here. You can enter full URL or Partial URL relative to Base URL. If it is full URL then domain name must be part of ServiceURL or part of TrustedDomains
IsMultiPart	Set this option if you want to upload file(s) (i.e. POST RAW file data) or send data using Multi-Part encoding method (i.e. Content-Type: multipart/form-data). Multi-Part request allows you to mix key/value and upload files in same request. On the other hand raw upload allows only single file upload (without any key/value) ==== Raw Upload (Content-Type: application/octet-stream) ===== To upload single file in raw mode check this option and specify full file path starting with @ sign in the Body (e.g. @c:\data\myfile.zip ) ==== Form-Data / Multipart Upload (Content-Type: multipart/form-data) ===== To treat your Request data as multi part fields you must specify key/value pairs separated by new lines into RequestData field (i.e. Body). Each key value pair is entered on new-line and key/value are separated using equal sign (=). Preceding and trailing spaces are ignored also blank lines are ignored. If field value has some any special character(s) then use escape sequence (e.g. For NewLine: \r\n, For Tab: \t, For at (@): \@). When value of any field starts with at sign (@) its automatically treated as File you want to upload. By default file content type is determined based on extension however you can supply content type manually for any field using this way [ YourFileFieldName.Content-Type=some-content-type ]. By default File Upload Field always includes Content-Type in the request (non file fields do not have content-type by default unless you supply manually). For some reason if you dont want to use Content-Type header in your request then supply blank Content-Type to exclude this header altogather [e.g. SomeFieldName.Content-Type= ]. In below example we have supplied Content-Type for file2 and SomeField1, all other fields are using default content-type. See below Example of uploading multiple files along with additional fields. If some API requires you to pass Content-Type: multipart/form-data rather than multipart/form-data then manually set Request Header => Content-Type: multipart/mixed (it must starts with multipart/ else will be ignored). file1=@c:\data\Myfile1.txt file2=@c:\data\Myfile2.json file2.Content-Type=application/json SomeField1=aaaaaaa SomeField1.Content-Type=text/plain SomeField2=12345 SomeFieldWithNewLineAndTab=This is line1\r\nThis is line2\r\nThis is \ttab \ttab \ttab SomeFieldStartingWithAtSign=\@MyTwitterHandle
Filter	Enter filter to extract array from response. Example: $.rows[] --OR-- $.customers[].orders[*]. Check your response document and find out hierarchy you like to extract
Headers	Headers for Request. To enter multiple headers use double pipe (\|\|) or new line after each {header-name}:{value} pair

OData Connector Examples for SAP Crystal Reports Connection

This page offers a collection of SQL examples designed for seamless integration with the ZappySys API ODBC Driver under ODBC Data Source (36/64) or ZappySys Data Gateway, enhancing your ability to connect and interact with Prebuilt Connectors effectively.

Read all records from an JSON OData Service Table [Read more...]

SELECT * FROM Customers

Read all records from an XML OData Service Table [Read more...]

SELECT * FROM read_data_xml WITH(TableName='MyTable')

Filter records using server side criteria [Read more...]

SELECT * FROM Customers WITH( SearchCriteria='Country -eq ''USA'' ')

Filter records using client side criteria [Read more...]

SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE Country = 'USA'

List all Tables (JSON Based Format) [Read more...]

SELECT * FROM list_tables_json

List all Tables (XML Based Format) [Read more...]

SELECT * FROM list_tables_xml

Conclusion

In this article we discussed how to connect to OData in SAP Crystal Reports and integrate data without any coding. Click here to Download OData Connector for SAP Crystal Reports and try yourself see how easy it is. If you still have any question(s) then ask here or simply click on live chat icon below and ask our expert (see bottom-right corner of this page).

Download OData Connector for SAP Crystal Reports Documentation

More integrations

Other application integration scenarios for OData

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SQL Server

Power BI

SSRS

Informatica

MS Access

MS Excel

SSAS

Python

JAVA

Tableau

Azure Data Factory (Pipeline)

Azure Data Factory (SSIS)

Talend Studio

UiPath

PowerShell

ODBC

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Mailchimp

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Power BI

ServiceNow

SharePoint Online

Shopify

Smartsheet

Stripe

YouTube

Zendesk

Zoho CRM

Zoho SalesIQ

Zoom

REST API

JSON

JSON File

XML

SOAP

XML File

JDBC-ODBC Bridge

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CSV

Amazon S3 JSON File

Amazon S3 XML File

Amazon S3 CSV File

Azure Blob JSON File

Azure Blob XML File

Azure Blob CSV File

FTP/SFTP JSON File

FTP/SFTP XML File

FTP/SFTP CSV File

Build your own Custom API Connector

Download OData Connector for SAP Crystal Reports Documentation

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