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How to Connect to Microsoft Dataverse Data in Using Python: 6 Steps
Create Python applications on Linux/UNIX machines with connectivity to Microsoft Dataverse data. Leverage the pyodbc module for ODBC in Python.
The rich ecosystem of Python modules lets you get to work quicker and integrate your systems more effectively. With the CData Linux/UNIX ODBC Driver for Microsoft Dataverse and the pyodbc module, you can easily build Microsoft Dataverse-connected Python applications. This article shows how to use the pyodbc built-in functions to connect to Microsoft Dataverse data, execute queries, and output the results.
How to Use the CData ODBC Drivers on UNIX/Linux
The CData ODBC Drivers are supported in various Red Hat-based and Debian-based systems, including Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL, CentOS, and Fedora. There are also several libraries and packages that are required, many of which may be installed by default, depending on your system. For more information on the supported versions of Linux operating systems and the required libraries, please refer to the "Getting Started" section in the help documentation (installed and found online).
About Microsoft Dataverse Data Integration
CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from Microsoft Dataverse (formerly the Common Data Service). Customers use CData connectivity to:
- Access both Dataverse Entities and Dataverse system tables to work with exactly the data they need.
- Authenticate securely with Microsoft Dataverse in a variety of ways, including Azure Active Directory, Azure Managed Service Identity credentials, and Azure Service Principal using either a client secret or a certificate.
- Use SQL stored procedures to manage Microsoft Dataverse entities - listing, creating, and removing associations between entities.
CData customers use our Dataverse connectivity solutions for a variety of reasons, whether they're looking to replicate their data into a data warehouse (alongside other data sources)or analyze live Dataverse data from their preferred data tools inside the Microsoft ecosystem (Power BI, Excel, etc.) or with external tools (Tableau, Looker, etc.).
Getting Started
1. Install the Driver Manager
Before installing the driver, check that your system has a driver manager. For this article, you will use unixODBC, a free and open source ODBC driver manager that is widely supported.
For Debian-based systems like Ubuntu, you can install unixODBC with the APT package manager:
$ sudo apt-get install unixodbc unixodbc-dev
For systems based on Red Hat Linux, you can install unixODBC with yum or dnf:
$ sudo yum install unixODBC unixODBC-devel
The unixODBC driver manager reads information about drivers from an odbcinst.ini file and about data sources from an odbc.ini file. You can determine the location of the configuration files on your system by entering the following command into a terminal:
$ odbcinst -j
The output of the command will display the locations of the configuration files for ODBC data sources and registered ODBC drivers. User data sources can only be accessed by the user account whose home folder the odbc.ini is located in. System data sources can be accessed by all users. Below is an example of the output of this command:
DRIVERS............: /etc/odbcinst.ini
SYSTEM DATA SOURCES: /etc/odbc.ini
FILE DATA SOURCES..: /etc/ODBCDataSources
USER DATA SOURCES..: /home/myuser/.odbc.ini
SQLULEN Size.......: 8
SQLLEN Size........: 8
SQLSETPOSIROW Size.: 8
2. Install the Driver
You can download the driver in standard package formats: the Debian .deb package format or the .rpm file format. Once you have downloaded the file, you can install the driver from the terminal.
The driver installer registers the driver with unixODBC and creates a system DSN, which can be used later in any tools or applications that support ODBC connectivity.
For Debian-based systems like Ubuntu, run the following command with sudo or as root:
$ dpkg -i /path/to/package.deb
For Red Hat systems and other systems that support .rpms, run the following command with sudo or as root:
$ rpm -i /path/to/package.rpm
Once the driver is installed, you can list the registered drivers and defined data sources using the unixODBC driver manager:
List the Registered Driver(s)
$ odbcinst -q -d
CData ODBC Driver for Microsoft Dataverse
...
List the Defined Data Source(s)
$ odbcinst -q -s
CData CDS Source
...
To use the CData ODBC Driver for Microsoft Dataverse with unixODBC, ensure that the driver is configured to use UTF-16. To do so, edit the INI file for the driver (cdata.odbc.cds.ini), which can be found in the lib folder in the installation location (typically /opt/cdata/cdata-odbc-driver-for-cds), as follows:
cdata.odbc.cds.ini
...
[Driver]
DriverManagerEncoding = UTF-16
3. Modify the DSN
The driver installation predefines a system DSN. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties. Additionally, you can create user-specific DSNs that will not require root access to modify in $HOME/.odbc.ini.
You can connect without setting any connection properties for your user credentials. Below are the minimum connection properties required to connect.
- InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
- OrganizationUrl: Set this to the organization URL you are connecting to, such as https://myorganization.crm.dynamics.com.
- Tenant (optional): Set this if you wish to authenticate to a different tenant than your default. This is required to work with an organization not on your default Tenant.
When you connect the Common Data Service OAuth endpoint opens in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions. The OAuth process completes automatically.
/etc/odbc.ini or $HOME/.odbc.ini
[CData CDS Source]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Microsoft Dataverse
Description = My Description
OrganizationUrl = https://myaccount.crm.dynamics.com/
For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).
You can follow the procedure below to install pyodbc and start accessing Microsoft Dataverse through Python objects.
4. Install pyodbc
You can use the pip utility to install the module:
pip install pyodbc
Be sure to import with the module with the following:
import pyodbc
5. Connect to Microsoft Dataverse Data
You can now connect with an ODBC connection string or a DSN. Below is the syntax for a connection string:
cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DRIVER={CData ODBC Driver for Microsoft Dataverse};OrganizationUrl=https://myaccount.crm.dynamics.com/')
Below is the syntax for a DSN:
cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DSN=CData CDS Sys;')
6. Execute SQL on Microsoft Dataverse
Instantiate a Cursor and use the execute method of the Cursor class to execute any SQL statement.
cursor = cnxn.cursor()
Select
You can use fetchall, fetchone, and fetchmany to retrieve Rows returned from SELECT statements:
import pyodbc
cursor = cnxn.cursor()
cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DSN=CData CDS Source;User=MyUser;Password=MyPassword')
cursor.execute("SELECT AccountId, Name FROM Accounts WHERE Name = 'MyAccount'")
rows = cursor.fetchall()
for row in rows:
print(row.AccountId, row.Name)
You can provide parameterized queries in a sequence or in the argument list:
cursor.execute(
"SELECT AccountId, Name
FROM Accounts
WHERE Name = ?", 'MyAccount',1)
Insert
INSERT commands also use the execute method; however, you must subsequently call the commit method after an insert or you will lose your changes:
cursor.execute("INSERT INTO Accounts (Name) VALUES ('MyAccount')")
cnxn.commit()
Update and Delete
As with an insert, you must also call commit after calling execute for an update or delete:
cursor.execute("UPDATE Accounts SET Name = 'MyAccount'")
cnxn.commit()
Metadata Discovery
You can use the getinfo method to retrieve data such as information about the data source and the capabilities of the driver. The getinfo method passes through input to the ODBC SQLGetInfo method.
cnxn.getinfo(pyodbc.SQL_DATA_SOURCE_NAME)
You are now ready to build Python apps in Linux/UNIX environments with connectivity to Microsoft Dataverse data, using the CData ODBC Driver for Microsoft Dataverse.
Ready to get started?
Download a free trial of the Microsoft Dataverse ODBC Driver to get started:
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Microsoft Dataverse ODBC Driver
The Microsoft Dataverse ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with Microsoft Dataverse, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.
Access Microsoft Dataverse like you would a database - access entities through a standard ODBC Driver interface.
