Connect to Azure Table 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 Azure Table data. This article demonstrates how to connect to Azure Table using Connect Cloud and query Azure Table data in FileMaker Pro.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL Server interface for Azure Table, allowing you to query data from Azure Table 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 Azure Table, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested Azure Table data quickly.

Configure Azure Table Connectivity for FileMaker Pro

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

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "Azure Table" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Azure Table.

   Specify your AccessKey and your Account to connect. Set the Account property to the Storage Account Name and set AccessKey to one of the Access Keys. Either the Primary or Secondary Access Keys can be used. To obtain these values, navigate to the Storage Accounts blade in the Azure portal. You can obtain the access key by selecting your account and clicking Access Keys in the Settings section.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Azure Table 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 Azure Table 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 Azure Table 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

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