Import Sage 300 Data into Microsoft Power Query



The CData API Server offers standards-based Web service endpoints that allow a variety of applications to access Sage 300 data. In this article, you will use the OData format to import Sage 300 data into Microsoft Power Query.

The API Server, when paired with the ADO.NET Provider for Sage 300 (or any of 200+ other ADO.NET Providers), enables you to use Web services to connect to and query Sage 300 data. This article details how to import an OData feed of Sage 300 data into Microsoft Power Query.

Set Up the API Server

Follow the steps below to begin producing secure Sage 300 OData services:

Deploy

The API Server runs on your own server. On Windows, you can deploy using the stand-alone server or IIS. On a Java servlet container, drop in the API Server WAR file. See the help documentation for more information and how-tos.

The API Server is also easy to deploy on Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2, and Heroku.

Connect to Sage 300

After you deploy the API Server and the ADO.NET Provider for Sage 300, provide authentication values and other connection properties needed to connect to Sage 300 by clicking Settings -> Connections and adding a new connection in the API Server administration console.

Sage 300 requires some initial setup in order to communicate over the Sage 300 Web API.

  • Set up the security groups for the Sage 300 user. Give the Sage 300 user access to the option under Security Groups (per each module required).
  • Edit both web.config files in the /Online/Web and /Online/WebApi folders; change the key AllowWebApiAccessForAdmin to true. Restart the webAPI app-pool for the settings to take.
  • Once the user access is configured, click https://server/Sage300WebApi/ to ensure access to the web API.

Authenticate to Sage 300 using Basic authentication.

Connect Using Basic Authentication

You must provide values for the following properties to successfully authenticate to Sage 300. Note that the provider reuses the session opened by Sage 300 using cookies. This means that your credentials are used only on the first request to open the session. After that, cookies returned from Sage 300 are used for authentication.

  • Url: Set this to the url of the server hosting Sage 300. Construct a URL for the Sage 300 Web API as follows: {protocol}://{host-application-path}/v{version}/{tenant}/ For example, http://localhost/Sage300WebApi/v1.0/-/.
  • User: Set this to the username of your account.
  • Password: Set this to the password of your account.

You can then choose the Sage 300 entities you want to allow the API Server access to by clicking Settings -> Resources.

Authorize API Server Users

After determining the OData services you want to produce, authorize users by clicking Settings -> Users. The API Server uses authtoken-based authentication and supports the major authentication schemes. Access can also be restricted based on IP address; by default, only connections to the local machine are allowed. You can authenticate as well as encrypt connections with SSL.

Connect to Sage 300 Data from Power Query

Follow the steps below to import tables that can be refreshed on demand:

  1. Configure the API Server to use a version of the OData protocol that is recognized by Power Query. In the API Server administration console, click Settings -> Server and change the value of the Default Version property to 3.0.
  2. From the ribbon in Excel, click Power Query -> From Other Data Sources -> From OData Feed, and enter the OData URL:

    https://your-server:8032/api.rsc
  3. In the next step of the wizard, define authentication credentials and set privacy levels. Select Basic authentication and enter the credentials for a user authorized to make requests. Specify the Username field and enter the user's authtoken in the Password field.

    To change the authentication scheme that Power Query will use, click Power Query -> Data Source Settings. Select the OData feed from the list and then click Edit Credential. Select the privacy level from the menu on the Data Source Settings page.

  4. You can now access Sage 300 data in Power Query. In the Navigator expand the node for the OData feed, right-click a table, and click Edit to open the Query Editor. This will display the table data.

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CData API Server