Informatica Zoho CRM Connector
In this article you will learn how to integrate Using Zoho CRM Connector you will be able to connect, read, and write data from within Informatica. Follow the steps below to see how we would accomplish that. Driver mentioned in this article 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. |
See also
|
How to read API data in Informatica (Call JSON / XML SOAP Service)
How to write data to API (POST) in Informatica (Call JSON / XML SOAP Service)
Read / Write Zoho CRM data in Informatica
Introduction
JSON / REST API is becoming more and more popular each day as everyone embrace cloud-centric services. This article is primarily focused on Informatica users who want to access Zoho CRM data or may be other API Integration in Informatica. However many tips and techniques described in this article will help you to understand how to integrate XML SOAP / JSON / REST API in other ETL / Reporting apps such as Tableau, Power BI, SSRS, Talend, Excel and many more.
After going through this article you will learn how to Read Zoho CRM / JSON / REST API data in Informatica and understand the concept of JSON / REST API. We will go through many screenshots and step-by-step examples to demonstrate JSON File or REST API integration in Informatica PowerCenter.
XML / JSON can come from a local file or REST API service (internal or public) so we will include both examples in this article (i.e. Read JSON files in Informatica, Import REST API in Informatica). So let’s get started. Next article will focus on how to write data to API in Informatica (POST / PUT data)
Requirements
This article assumes that you have full filled following basic requirements.
- Download Install ZappySys ODBC PowerPack (API Driver for Zoho CRM included)
- Install Informatica PowerCenter Client Tools (e.g. Workflow and Mapping Designers)
- Access to a Relational database such as SQL Server (or use any of your choice e.g. Oracle, MySQL, DB2 ). If nothing available then you can use flat file target.
High level Steps for Import Zoho CRM data using Informatica (Read Zoho CRM API data)
Before we dive deep to learn how to load Zoho CRM data in Informatica (i.e. Zoho CRM to SQL Table), Here the summary of high-level steps you need to perform to import JSON Files or REST API in Informatica.
- Download and Install ZappySys API Driver (for connecting to Zoho CRM)
- Create ODBC DSN using ZappySys API driver and choose Zoho CRM Connector during Wizard
- Create Relational > ODBC Connection in Informatica Workflow designer (Point to DSN we created in the previous step)
- Import JSON Source Definition in the Informatica Mapping Designer > Sources Tab
- Import Target Table Definition in the Informatica Mapping Designer > Targets Tab
- Create source to target mapping in Mappings tab
- Save mapping (name m_API_to_SQL_Load )
- Create Session using the mapping we created in the previous step
- Save Workflow and execute to load Zoho CRM data into SQL Table. Verify your data and log.
Video Tutorial – Read any API / JSON data in Informatica (Load Zoho CRM to SQL Table)
Below video is not about Zoho CRM API but its showing API access in general (for any API). By watching following ~5 min video can learn steps listed in this article to load JSON API data into SQL Server Table using ZappySys JSON Driver. You can go though full article to learn many useful details not covered in this video.
Getting Started – Import Zoho CRM to SQL Server in Informatica
Now let’s get started. For example purpose, we will read data from Zoho CRM and load data into SQL Server Table using Informatica Workflow.
Create ODBC Data Source (DSN) based on ZappySys API Driver
To get data from ZohoCrm using Informatica we first need to create a DSN (Data Source) which will access data from ZohoCrm. We will later be able to read data using Informatica. 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 DriverYou 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 "Zoho CRM" from the list of Popular Connectors. If "Zoho CRM" 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:
ZohoCrmDSNZoho CRM -
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 Connection for Zoho CRM API [Read more..]
Steps to get Zoho CRM Credentials : OAuth [OAuth]
To register custom App, perform the following steps (Detailed steps found in the help link at the end)- Go to Zoho API Console
- Click Add Client link
- Select Server-based Applications option
- Enter desired client name (Display purpose only)
- Enter some URL for Company homepage
- For Authorized Redirect URI enter https://zappysys.com/oauth (Or enter your own but we recommend using ZappySys one if possible). This URL must match on Zoho Connector UI.
- Click CREATE.
- Copy Client ID and Secret and paste on Zoho Connector UI.
Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:
ZohoCrmDSNOAuth [OAuth]https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v2Required Parameters Optional Parameters ClientId Fill in the parameter... ClientSecret Fill in the parameter... Permissions Fill in the parameter... AccountUrl Fill in the parameter... RedirectUrl Fill in the parameter... RetryMode Fill in the parameter... RetryStatusCodeList Fill in the parameter... RetryCountMax Fill in the parameter... RetryMultiplyWaitTime Fill in the parameter... -
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.
Create Connection in Informatica Workflow Designer
Once you create DSN using API Driver our next step is to define a connection for Zoho CRM source in Informatica PowerCenter Workflow designer.
- Open Workflow designer [W] icon
- Goto Connections > Relational
- Click New and select ODBC
- Now on the ODBC connection setup enter connection name, some fake userid / password (this is a required field but its ignored by JSON Driver)
- In the Connection String field enter the exact same name of DSN (Open ODBC Data Sources UI to confirm)
- Click OK to close the connection properties.
That’s it. Now we ready to move to next step (define source and target in Mapping Designer).
Import Zoho CRM Source Definition in Informatica Mapping Designer
Now let’s look at steps to import Zoho CRM table definition.
- Open Informatica Mapping Designer (Click [D] icon)
- Click on Source Icon to switch to Sources designer
- From the top menu > Click on Sources > Import from Database …
- Select ODBC data source from the dropdown (Find out DSN we created earlier to use as JSON Source)
-
Click Connect button to get a list of tables. Any array node is listed as a table. Also, you will see array node with parent columns (e.g. value_with_parent). You may get some warning like below but they are harmless so just ignore by clicking OK.
DLL name entry missing from C:\Informatica\PowerCenter8.6.1\client\bin\powrmart.ini Section = ODBCDLL Entry = ZappySys JSON Driver
—————————————————-
Using EXTODBC.DLL to support ZappySys JSON Driver. For native support of ZappySys JSON Driver make an entry in the .ini file. - Select Table you wish to get (You can filter rows by custom SQL query. We will see later in this article how to do)
- Optionally once table structure is imported you can rename it
- That’s it, we are now ready to perform similar steps to import Target table structure in the next section.
Import SQL Server Target Definition in Informatica Mapping Designer
Now let’s look at steps to import Target table definition (very similar to the previous section, the only difference is this time we will select DSN which points to SQL Server or any other Target Server).
Now lets look at steps to import target table definition in Informatica mapping designer.
- In the Mapping Designer, Click on Target Icon to switch to Target designer
- From the top menu > Click on Targets > Import from Database …
- Select DSN for your Target server (if DSN doesn’t exist then create one by opening ODBC Sources just like we created one for JSON API source (see the previous section about creating DSN).
- Enter your userid , password and Schema name and click Connect to see tables
- Select Table name to and click OK import definition.
Create Source to Target Mapping in Informatica (Import JSON to SQL Server)
Once you have imported source and target table definition, we can create mapping and transformation to load data from JSON to SQL Table.
- First open Mapping Designer (Click [D] icon)
- Drag JSON Source from sources folder
- Drag SQL Table from Targets folder
- Map desired columns from Source to target
-
For certain columns you may have to do datatype conversion. For example to convert OrderDate form nstring to DataTime you have to use Expression Transform like below and map it to target. In below example, our JSON has date format (e.g. 2018-01-31 12:00:00 AM ). To import this to DateTime field in SQL server we need to convert it using TO_DATE function. Use double quotes around T to make this format working.
TO_DATE(OrderDate,'YYYY-MM-DD H12:MI:SS AM') --For ISO use below way TO_DATE(OrderDate,'YYYY-MM-DD"T"HH24:MI:SS')
- Once you done with mapping save your mapping and name it (i.e. m_Api_To_SQL)
- Now lets move to next section to create workflow.
Create Workflow and Session in Informatica
Now the final step is to create a new workflow. Perform following steps to create workflow which with a session task to import JSON data into SQL table.
- Open workflow designer by click [W] icon.
-
Launch new workflow creation wizard by click Workflow top menu > Wizard
name your workflow (e.g. wf_Api_Tp_Sql_Table_Import) - Finish the wizard and double-click the Session to edit some default properties.
- First change Error settings so we fail session on error (By default its always green)
- Select JSON connection for Source
- Change default Source query if needed. You can pass parameters to this query to make it dynamic.
- Select Target connection of SQL Target Table
- Save workflow
- That’s it. We ready to run our first workflow to load JSON data to SQL.
Execute Workflow and Validate Log in Informatica
Now once you are done with your workflow, execute it to see the log.
POST data to REST API in Informatica
There will be a time when you like to send Source data to REST API or SOAP Web Service. You can use below Query for example. For detailed explanation on how to POST data in Informatica check this article.
Video Tutorial – How to POST data to REST API in Informatica
Here is detailed step by step video on REST API POST in informatica PowerCenter
Keywords
how to import Zoho CRM in informatica | how to read Zoho CRM data in informatica powercenter | how to test json from informatica | how to use Zoho CRM data as source in informatica power center | how to connect Zoho CRM in informatica 10 | informatica how to import data from Zoho CRM | informatica jtx to import Zoho CRM (use of java transformation) | informatica plugin for restful api using json | informatica power center and Zoho CRM support | informatica read Zoho CRM | informatica rest api | informatica Zoho CRM connector | json parser import informatica
Create Custom Store 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 Store 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 Store Procedure and write the your desired store procedure and Save it and it will create the custom store 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 Store 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 store 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 store 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.
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 store 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 store procedure and provide you the response.
Conclusion
In this article we discussed how to connect to Zoho CRM in Informatica and integrate data without any coding. Click here to Download Zoho CRM Connector for Informatica 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 Zoho CRM Connector for Informatica
Documentation
Actions supported by Zoho CRM Connector
Zoho CRM 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.Parameter | Description |
---|---|
sql_query |
|
Parameter | Description |
---|
Parameter | Description | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
module |
|
Parameter | Description | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
module |
|
Parameter | Description | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
module |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tag Id |
|
Parameter | Description | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
module |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Record Id(s) (comma seperated list) |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tag Id |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Overwrite |
|
Parameter | Description | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
module |
|
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
module |
|
Parameter | Description | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Last Modified Date - Read data modified after it |
|
||||||||
Custom View ID |
|
||||||||
fields |
|
||||||||
sort_by |
|
||||||||
sort_order |
|
||||||||
territory_id |
|
||||||||
include_child |
|
||||||||
converted |
|
Parameter | Description | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Search By Criteria Expression |
|
||||||||
Search By Email |
|
||||||||
Search By Phone |
|
||||||||
Search By any Word |
|
||||||||
Search By Id |
|
||||||||
Include only converted records |
|
||||||||
Include approved records |
|
Parameter | Description | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Record ID(s) - Use Comma for multiple (e.g. 111,222) |
|
||||||
Fire Wordflow Trigger |
|
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
Triggers |
|
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
Triggers |
|
Parameter | Description | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Triggers |
|
||||||||
Duplicate_Check_Fields |
|
Parameter | Description |
---|---|
Url |
|
Body |
|
IsMultiPart |
|
Filter |
|
Headers |
|
Other App Integration scenarios for Zoho CRM
Other Connectors for Informatica
Download Zoho CRM Connector for Informatica
Documentation
How to connect Zoho CRM in Informatica?
How to get Zoho CRM data in Informatica?
How to read Zoho CRM data in Informatica?
How to load Zoho CRM data in Informatica?
How to import Zoho CRM data in Informatica?
How to pull Zoho CRM data in Informatica?
How to push data to Zoho CRM in Informatica?
How to write data to Zoho CRM in Informatica?
How to POST data to Zoho CRM in Informatica?
Call Zoho CRM API in Informatica
Consume Zoho CRM API in Informatica
Zoho CRM Informatica Automate
Zoho CRM Informatica Integration
Integration Zoho CRM in Informatica
Consume real-time Zoho CRM data in Informatica
Consume realtime Zoho CRM API data in Informatica
Zoho CRM ODBC Driver | ODBC Driver for Zoho CRM | ODBC Zoho CRM Driver | SSIS Zoho CRM Source | SSIS Zoho CRM Destination
Connect Zoho CRM in Informatica
Load Zoho CRM in Informatica
Load Zoho CRM data in Informatica
Read Zoho CRM data in Informatica
Zoho CRM API Call in Informatica