Shopify Connector for C#

Shopify Connector can be used to integrate Shopify REST API in your App / BI Tools. You can read/write data about Customers, Orders, OrderItems, Products and more.

In this article you will learn how to quickly and efficiently integrate Shopify data in C#. We will use high-performance Shopify Connector to easily connect to Shopify and then access the data inside C#.

Let's follow the steps below to see how we can accomplish that!

Download Documentation

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

Step-by-step instructions

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

  1. Download and install ODBC PowerPack.

  2. Open ODBC Data Sources (x64):

    Open ODBC Data Source
  3. Create a User data source (User DSN) based on ZappySys API Driver

    ZappySys API Driver
    Create new User DSN for ZappySys API Driver
    • Create and use User DSN if the client application is run under a User Account. This is an ideal option in design-time, when developing a solution, e.g. in Visual Studio 2019. Use it for both type of applications - 64-bit and 32-bit.
    • Create and use System DSN if the client application is launched under a System Account, e.g. as a Windows Service. Usually, this is an ideal option to use in a production environment. Use ODBC Data Source Administrator (32-bit), instead of 64-bit version, if Windows Service is a 32-bit application.
  4. When the Configuration window appears give your data source a name if you haven't done that already, then select "Shopify" from the list of Popular Connectors. If "Shopify" 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:

    ShopifyDSN
    Shopify
    ODBC DSN Template Selection
  5. 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.

    Steps how to get and use Shopify credentials : Access Token [Http]
    Setting up your Shopify store account for API access involves creating an "app" for your store. The "app" is installed into the Shopify account and configured with the appropriate access levels for your data integration needs.
    1. Visit https://accounts.shopify.com and log into your Shopify store account.
    2. After logging in, select the store to connect to with the ZappySys Shopify Connector.
    3. Select the Settings link (usually in the lower-left corner) to launch the Settings screen.
    4. On the left menu panel, select Apps and sales channels.
    5. On the Apps and sales channels screen, select Develop apps (near the top of the screen).
    6. On the App development screen, select Create an app (near the upper-right corner of the screen).
    7. Give the app that will be used to provide Shopify API access a name, select the appropriate developer from the App developer drop-down, and then select Create app.
    8. Select Configure Admin API scopes and the Admin API access scopes screen will appear.
    9. In the Admin API access scopes screen, select every access scope checkbox that applies to your integration needs. It is generally not a good idea to allow more access than what is needed in order to fulfill your integration needs.
      • To enable the reading of customer information, select read_customers.
      • To enable the writing of customer information, select write_customers.
      • To enable the reading of inventory item information, select read_inventory.
      • To enable the writing of inventory item information, select write_inventory.
      • To enable the reading of order information, select read_orders.
      • To enable the writing of order information, select write_orders.
      After selecting all applicable access scopes, select Save.
    10. Install the app by selecting the Install app button (near the upper-right corner of the screen). If any other prompts for installation appears, select Install.
    11. After the app is installed, the Admin API access token will be available in the API credentials tab of the page. It can only be revealed ONCE for security purposes. Select Reveal token once to show the new Admin API access token. SAVE THE ADMIN API ACCESS TOKEN IN A SAFE PLACE WHERE YOU HAVE IT CONFIDENTIAL, SECURE, AND NOT ACCESSIBLE TO UNAUTHORIZED INDIVIDUALS. The Admin API access token will be needed in this process later.
    12. In the ZappySys connector API screen, enter the subdomain of your Shopify store into the Subdomain parameter textbox. For example, if your Shopify URL is https://acmetoys.myshopify.com, the subdomain would be acmetoys.
    13. In the same screen, enter the Admin API access token saved from step 11 above into the Admin API Access Token textbox. In order to edit the text in this field, select the ellipses (...) button that appears when the textbox is clicked and edit the access token with the dialog box that appears.
    14. Select the Test Connection button at the bottom of the window to verify proper connectivity with the Shopify store.
    15. If the connection test succeeds, select OK.

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

    ShopifyDSN
    Shopify
    Access Token [Http]
    https://[$Subdomain$].myshopify.com/admin/api/2023-01
    Required Parameters
    Sub-domain Fill-in the parameter...
    Admin API Access Token Fill-in the parameter...
    Optional Parameters
    RetryMode RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
    RetryStatusCodeList 429
    RetryCountMax 5
    RetryMultiplyWaitTime True
    ODBC DSN HTTP Connection Configuration

  6. Once the data source connection has been configured, it's time to configure the SQL query. Select the Preview tab and then click Query Builder button to configure the SQL query:

    ZappySys API Driver - Shopify
    Shopify Connector can be used to integrate Shopify REST API in your App / BI Tools. You can read/write data about Customers, Orders, OrderItems, Products and more.
    ShopifyDSN
    Open Query Builder in API ODBC Driver to read and write data to REST API
  7. Start by selecting the Table or Endpoint you are interested in and then configure the parameters. This will generate a query that we will use in C# to retrieve data from Shopify. Hit OK button to use this query in the next step.

    SELECT * FROM Products
    Configure table/endpoint parameters in ODBC data source based on API Driver
    Some parameters configured in this window will be passed to the Shopify API, e.g. filtering parameters. It means that filtering will be done on the server side (instead of the client side), enabling you to get only the meaningful data much faster.
  8. Now hit Preview Data button to preview the data using the generated SQL query. If you are satisfied with the result, use this query in C#:

    ZappySys API Driver - Shopify
    Shopify Connector can be used to integrate Shopify REST API in your App / BI Tools. You can read/write data about Customers, Orders, OrderItems, Products and more.
    ShopifyDSN
    SELECT * FROM Products
    API ODBC Driver-based data source data preview
    You can also access data quickly from the tables dropdown by selecting <Select table>.
    A WHERE clause, LIMIT keyword will be performed on the client side, meaning that the whole result set will be retrieved from the Shopify API first, and only then the filtering will be applied to the data. If possible, it is recommended to use parameters in Query Builder to filter the data on the server side (in Shopify servers).
  9. Click OK to finish creating the data source.

Video Tutorial

Read data in C#

Using ODBC DSN

  1. Create a new Console project and use this code to read the data:

    "ShopifyDSN";
    Make ZappySys Driver call in c#

  2. Press F5 to run the code and read the data:
    ZappySys Driver Output in c#

  3. Here is the code in text format:

    using System;
    using System.Data.Odbc;
    
    namespace ConsoleApp {
        class Program {
            static void Main() {
                var dsn = "ShopifyDSN";
                using (var conn = new OdbcConnection(String.Format("DSN={0}", dsn)))
                {
                    conn.Open();
                    var cmd = new OdbcCommand("SELECT * FROM Products", conn);
                    
                    //Increase the timeout duration from the default 30 seconds, which may be insufficient in certain scenarios
                    cmd.CommandTimeout=600; // 600-Seconds
                    
                    var rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader();
                    while (rdr.Read())
                    {
                        for (int i = 0; i < rdr.FieldCount; i++)
                        {
                                Console.Write("{0}\t", rdr[i]);
                        }
                        Console.WriteLine();
                    }
                }
                Console.ReadKey();
            }
        }
    }
    

Using a full ODBC connection string

If you want to avoid being dependent on a DSN and creating multiple DSNs for each platform (x86, x64), then you can use a fully qualified connection string. Simply go to your DSN and copy the Connection String:

  1. Open ODBC data source configuration and click Copy settings:
    ZappySys API Driver - Configuration [Version: 2.0.1.10418]
    ZappySys API Driver - Shopify
    Shopify Connector can be used to integrate Shopify REST API in your App / BI Tools. You can read/write data about Customers, Orders, OrderItems, Products and more.
    ShopifyDSN
    Copy connection string for ODBC application
  2. The window opens, telling us the connection string was successfully copied to the clipboard: Successful connection string copying for ODBC application
  3. Then in your C# code, pass the connection string as an argument when calling the OdbcConnection object's constructor, for example:

    var connectionString = @"DRIVER={ZappySys API Driver};ServiceUrl=https://[$Subdomain$].myshopify.com/admin/api/2023-01;CredentialType=Token;AuthScheme={none};TokenAuthHeader=X-Shopify-Access-Token;";
    
    using (var conn = new OdbcConnection(connectionString))
    {
        // your code goes here
    }

Limitations of using a full connection string

Despite using a full ODBC connection string may be very convenient it comes with a limitation: it's length is limited to 1024 symbols (or sometimes more). It usually happens when API provider generates a very long Refresh Token when OAuth is at play. If you are using such a long ODBC connection string, you may get this error:

"Connection string exceeds maximum allowed length of 1024"

But there is a solution to this by storing the full connection string in a file. Follow the steps below to achieve this:

  1. Open your ODBC data source.
  2. Click Copy settings button to copy a full connection string (see the previous section on how to accomplish that).
  3. Then create a new file, let's say, in C:\temp\odbc-connection-string.txt.
  4. Continue by pasting the copied connection string into a newly created file and save it.
  5. Finally, the last step! Just construct a shorter ODBC connection string using this format:
    DRIVER={ZappySys API Driver};SettingsFile=C:\temp\odbc-connection-string.txt
  6. Our troubles are over! Now you should be able to use this connection string in C# with no problems.
This feature requires ODBC PowerPack v1.9.0 or later.

Actions supported by Shopify Connector

Learn how to perform common Shopify actions directly in C# with these how-to guides:

Conclusion

In this article we showed you how to connect to Shopify in C# and integrate data without any coding, saving you time and effort. It's worth noting that ZappySys API Driver allows you to connect not only to Shopify, but to any Java application that supports JDBC (just use a different JDBC driver and configure it appropriately).

We encourage you to download Shopify Connector for C# and see how easy it is to use it for yourself or your team.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact ZappySys support team. You can also open a live chat immediately by clicking on the chat icon below.

Download Shopify Connector for C# Documentation

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