Outlook Mail (Office 365) Connector
Documentation
Version: 2
Documentation

Outlook Mail (Office 365) Connector - Using Views


T-SQL is a programming language used for managing and querying data in Microsoft SQL Server databases. We provides tools for data integration, automation, and connectivity.

If you want to use T-SQL with ZappySys, you can use our Connector, which allows you to connect to SQL Server databases and execute T-SQL queries from Outlook Mail (Office 365).

Create Data Source in ZappySys Data Gateway based on API Driver

  1. Download and install ZappySys ODBC PowerPack.

  2. Search for gateway in start menu and Open ZappySys Data Gateway:
    Open ZappySys Data Gateway

  3. Go to Users Tab to add our first Gateway user. Click Add; we will give it a name tdsuser and enter password you like to give. Check Admin option and click OK to save. We will use these details later when we create linked server:
    ZappySys Data Gateway - Add User

  4. Now we are ready to add a data source. Click Add, give data source a name (Copy this name somewhere, we will need it later) and then select Native - ZappySys API Driver. Finally, click OK. And it will create the Data Set for it and open the ZS driver UI.

    OutlookMail(Office365)DSN

    ZappySys Data Gateway - Add Data Source

  5. When the Configuration window appears give your data source a name if you haven't done that already, then select "Outlook Mail (Office 365)" from the list of Popular Connectors. If "Outlook Mail (Office 365)" 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:

    OutlookMail(Office365)DSN
    Outlook Mail (Office 365)
    ODBC DSN Template Selection

  6. 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.

    OAuth App must be created in Microsoft Azure AD. These settings typically found here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/auth-register-app-v2. [API Help..]

    Steps to get Outlook Mail (Office 365) Credentials

    Firstly, login into Azure Portal and there create an OAuth application:

    1. Go to Azure Portal and login there.
    2. Then go to Azure Active Directory.
    3. On the left side click menu item App registrations
    4. Then proceed with clicking New registration.
    5. Enter a name for your application.
    6. Select the account types to support with the Supported account types option.
    7. In Redirect URI, select Web.
    8. In the textbox enter https://zappysys.com/oauth as the Redirect URI or another valid redirect URL.
    9. Use this same Redirect URI in the Redirect URL - Must Match App Redirect URL grid row.
    10. Copy Client ID and paste it into the API Connection Manager configuration grid in the Client ID row.
    11. Click on the Endpoints link and copy the OAuth 2.0 authorization endpoint (v2) URL to the Authorization URL grid row. Usually it looks similar to this:
      • https://login.microsoftonline.com/daed1250-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-ef0a982d3d1e/oauth2/v2.0/authorize
    12. Copy the OAuth 2.0 token endpoint (v2) URL to the Token URL grid row. Usually it looks similar to this:
      • https://login.microsoftonline.com/daed1250-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-ef0a982d3d1e/oauth2/v2.0/token
    13. Close "Endpoints" popup and create a Client Secret in the Certificates & secrets tab.
    14. Proceed by clicking New client secret and setting expiration period. Copy the client secret and paste it into configuration grid in Client Secret row.
    15. Now lets setup permissions for the app. Click on API Permissions and on the page click Plus Sign Add Permission
    16. Click on Microsoft Graph API and then choose Delegated Permissions
    17. on Permission list page search or choose permissions as needed. We need to enable following Permissions from 3 Sections (i.e. OpenId Permissions, Mail Permissions and Users Permissions).
    18. Make sure you have checked below permissions (If you do not need Write feature then you can skip Write scopes)
      offline_access
      email
      openid
      profile 
      Mail.Read
      Mail.Read.Shared
      Mail.ReadBasic
      Mail.ReadBasic.Shared
      Mail.ReadWrite
      Mail.ReadWrite.Shared
      Mail.Send
      Mail.Send.Shared
      User.Read
      User.ReadBasic.All
        
    19. Click Generate Token to generate tokens.
      NOTE: If you are planning to use your current data connection/token for automated processes, we recommend that you use a generic account for token generation when the login box appears (e.g. sales_automation@mycompany.com instead of bob_smith@mycompany.com). When you use a personal account which is tied to a specific employee profile and that employee leaves the company, the token may become invalid and any automated processes using that token will fail. Another potentially unwanted effect of using a personal token is incorrect logging; the API calls (e.g. Read, Edit, Delete, Upload) made with that token will record the specific user as performing the calls instead of an automated process.
    20. That's it!

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

    OutlookMail(Office365)DSN
    Outlook Mail (Office 365)
    User Credentials [OAuth]
    https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0
    Required Parameters
    Authorization URL Fill in the parameter...
    Token URL Fill in the parameter...
    Client ID Fill in the parameter...
    Scope Fill in the parameter...
    Optional Parameters
    Client Secret Fill in the parameter...
    Refresh Token File Path Fill in the parameter...
    ReturnUrl - Must Match App Redirect URL Fill in the parameter...
    RetryMode Fill in the parameter...
    RetryStatusCodeList Fill in the parameter...
    RetryCountMax Fill in the parameter...
    RetryMultiplyWaitTime Fill in the parameter...
    Login Prompt Option Fill in the parameter...
    ODBC DSN Oauth Connection Configuration

    OAuth App must be created in Microsoft Azure AD. These settings typically found here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/auth-v2-service [API Help..]

    Please refer to below API Reference (External Site) link for Application Credentials [OAuth]

    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/auth-v2-service

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

    OutlookMail(Office365)DSN
    Outlook Mail (Office 365)
    Application Credentials [OAuth]
    https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0
    Required Parameters
    Token URL Fill in the parameter...
    Client ID Fill in the parameter...
    Client Secret Fill in the parameter...
    Scope Fill in the parameter...
    Optional Parameters
    RetryMode Fill in the parameter...
    RetryStatusCodeList Fill in the parameter...
    RetryCountMax Fill in the parameter...
    RetryMultiplyWaitTime Fill in the parameter...
    ODBC DSN Oauth Connection Configuration

  7. 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:
    ODBC ZappySys Data Source Preview

  8. Click OK to finish creating the data source.

Read data in SQL Server from the ZappySys Data Gateway

  1. To read the data in SQL Server the first thing you have to do is create a Linked Server. Go to SQL Server Management Studio and configure it in a similar way:
    SSMS SQL Server Configure Linked Server

  2. Then click on Security option and configure username we created in ZappySys Data Gateway in one of the previous steps:
    SSMS SQL Server Configure Linked Server User Name

  3. Optional: Under the Server Options, Enable RPC and RPC Out and Disable Promotion of Distributed Transactions(MSDTC).

    RPC and MSDTC Settings

    You need to enable RPC Out if you plan to use EXEC(...) AT [MY_LINKED_SERVER_NAME] rather than OPENQUERY.
    If don't enabled it, you will encounter the Server 'MY_LINKED_SERVER_NAME' is not configured for RPC error.

    Query Example:

    EXEC('Select * from Products') AT [MY_LINKED_SERVER_NAME]


    If you plan to use 'INSERT INTO...EXEC(....) AT [MY_LINKED_SERVER_NAME]' in that case you need to Disable Promotion of Distributed Transactions(MSDTC).
    If don't disabled it, you will encounter the The operation could not be performed because OLE DB provider "SQLNCLI11" for linked server "MY_LINKED_SERVER_NAME" was unable to begin a distributed transaction. error.

    Query Example:

    Insert Into dbo.Products
     EXEC('Select * from Products') AT [MY_LINKED_SERVER_NAME]
    


  4. Finally, open a new query and execute a query we saved in one of the previous steps:

    SELECT * FROM OPENQUERY([MY_LINKED_SERVER_NAME], 'SELECT * FROM Products');

    SSMS SQL Server Query Data Results

Create Linked Server using Code

In previous section you saw how to create a Linked Server from UI. You can do similar action by code too (see below). Run below script after changing necessary parameters. Assuming your Data Source name on ZappySys Data Gateway UI is 'OutlookMail(Office365)DSN'

    USE [master]
    GO
    --///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    --Run below code in SSMS to create Linked Server and use ZappySys Drivers in SQL Server
    --///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

    //Replace YOUR_GATEWAY_USER, YOUR_GATEWAY_PASSWORD
    //Replace localhost with IP/Machine name if ZappySys Gateway Running on different machine other than SQL Server
    //Replace Port 5000 if you configured gateway on a different port


    --1. Configure your gateway service as per this article https://zappysys.com/links?id=10036

    --2. Make sure you have SQL Server Installed. You can download FREE SQL Server Express Edition from here if you dont want to buy Paid version https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-editions-express

    --Uncomment below if you like to drop linked server if it already exists
    --EXEC master.dbo.sp_dropserver @server=N'LS_OutlookMail(Office365)DSN', @droplogins='droplogins'

    --3. Create new linked server

    EXEC master.dbo.sp_addlinkedserver
      @server = N'LS_OutlookMail(Office365)DSN'  --Linked server name (this will be used in OPENQUERY sql
    , @srvproduct=N''
    ---- For MSSQL 2012,2014,2016 and 2019 use below (SQL Server Native Client 11.0)---
    , @provider=N'SQLNCLI11'
    ---- For MSSQL 2022 or higher use below (Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server)---
    --, @provider=N'MSOLEDBSQL'
    , @datasrc=N'localhost,5000' --//Machine / Port where Gateway service is running
    , @provstr=N'Network Library=DBMSSOCN;'
    , @catalog=N'OutlookMail(Office365)DSN' --Data source name you gave on Gateway service settings

    --4. Attach gateway login with linked server

    EXEC master.dbo.sp_addlinkedsrvlogin
    @rmtsrvname=N'LS_OutlookMail(Office365)DSN'  --linked server name
    , @useself=N'False'
    , @locallogin=NULL
    , @rmtuser=N'YOUR_GATEWAY_USER' --enter your Gateway user name
    , @rmtpassword='YOUR_GATEWAY_PASSWORD'  --enter your Gateway user's password
    GO

    --5. Enable RPC OUT (This is Optional - Only needed if you plan to use EXEC(...) AT YourLinkedServerName rather than OPENQUERY
    EXEC sp_serveroption 'LS_OutlookMail(Office365)DSN', 'rpc', true;
    EXEC sp_serveroption 'LS_OutlookMail(Office365)DSN', 'rpc out', true;

    --Disable MSDTC - Below needed to support INSERT INTO from EXEC AT statement
    EXEC sp_serveroption 'LS_OutlookMail(Office365)DSN', 'remote proc transaction promotion', false;

    --Increase query timeout if query is going to take longer than 10 mins (Default timeout is 600 seconds)
    --EXEC sp_serveroption 'LS_OutlookMail(Office365)DSN', 'query timeout', 1200;
    GO

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.

  1. Go to Custom Objects Tab and Click on Add button and Select Add Table:
    ZappySys Driver - Add Table

  2. Enter the desired Table name and click on OK:
    ZappySys Driver - Add Table Name

  3. And it will open the New Query Window Click on Cancel to close that window and go to Custom Objects Tab.

  4. 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'

    ZappySys Driver - Create Custom Table

  5. 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"

    ZappySys Driver - Execute Custom Virtual Table Query

  6. 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''')

    ZappySys Driver - Generate SQL Server Query

  7. Now go to SQL served and execute that query and it will make the API call using stored procedure and provide you the response.
    ZappySys Driver - Generate SQL Server Query