The Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver is installed on the computer where your applications are running. ODBC applications access ODBC drivers through the ODBC Driver Manager and a data source. The data source tells the Driver Manager which ODBC driver to load, which Zoho CRM server to connect to and how to connect to it. This chapter describes how to create data sources, use DSN-less connections and configure the Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver.
Before setting up a data source, you must have successfully installed the Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver.
For Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver installation instructions, see Installation.
This section describes how to configure the Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver to connect to Zoho CRM by using a data source or a DSN-less connection string. The section assumes you are, or are able to consult with, a database administrator.
There are two ways to set up a data source to your Zoho CRM data:
By default, the Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver installation creates a SYSTEM data source named [ZOHO_SAMPLE]. If you are using the unixODBC included in the Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver distribution, the SYSTEM odbc.ini file is in /etc.
If you built unixODBC yourself, or installed it from some other source, SYSTEM data sources are stored in the path specified with the configure option --sysconfdir=directory. If sysconfdir was not specified when unixODBC was configured and built, it defaults to /usr/local/etc.
If you accepted the default choices when installing the Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver, USER data sources must be created and edited in $HOME/.odbc.ini.
To display the directory where unixODBC stores SYSTEM and USER data sources, type odbcinst -j. By default, you must be logged in as root to edit a SYSTEM data source defined in /etc/odbc.ini. |
You can either edit the sample data source or create new data sources.
Each section of the odbc.ini file starts with a data source name in square brackets [ ] followed by a number of attribute=value pairs.
The Driver attribute identifies the ODBC driver in the odbcinst.ini file to use for a data source.
When the Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver is installed into unixODBC, it places an Easysoft ZOHO CRM ODBC entry in odbcinst.ini. For Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver data sources therefore, you need to include a Driver = Easysoft ZOHO CRM ODBC entry.
To configure a Zoho CRM data source, in your odbc.ini file, you need to specify these attributes (replace the attribute values with ones that are appropriate for you):
AccServer=https://accounts.zoho.eu
The Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver must be able to find the following shared objects, which are installed during the Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver installation:
By default, this is located in /usr/local/easysoft/unixODBC/lib.
By default, this is located in /usr/local/easysoft/lib.
By default, this is located in /usr/local/easysoft/lib.
You may need to set and export LD_LIBRARY_PATH, SHLIB_PATH or LIBPATH (depending on your operating system and run-time linker) to include the directories where libodbcinst.so, libeslicshr.so and libessupp.so are located.
The shared object file extension (.so) may vary depending on the operating system (.so, .a or .sl). |
The isql query tool lets you test your Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver data sources.
To test the Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver connection
1. Change directory into /usr/local/easysoft/unixODBC/bin.
2. Type ./isql.sh -v data_source, where data_source is the name of the target data source.
3. At the prompt, type an SQL query. For example:
Type help to return a list of tables:
To connect an ODBC application on a Windows machine to a Zoho CRM server:
1. Open ODBC Data Source Administrator:
The ODBC Data Source Administrator dialog box is displayed:
2. Select the User DSN tab to set up a data source that only you can access.
Select the System DSN tab to create a data source which is available to anyone who logs on to this Windows machine.
3. Click Add... to add a new data source.
The Create New Data Source dialog box displays a list of drivers:
4. Select Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver and click Finish.
The DSN Setup dialog box is displayed:
For details of the attributes that can be set on this dialog box, see Attribute Fields.
To use the Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver to work with your ZohoCRM data, you need to obtain a refresh token.
To obtain a refresh token on Windows, choose the Authenticate and obtain token button in the configuration dialog box when setting up your data source. This launches your default browser. Sign into your Zoho CRM account and then grant the Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver permissions it needs to work with your Zoho CRM data. Then follow the onscreen instructions.
This section lists the attributes which can be set for the Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver in a table showing:
Attributes which are text fields are displayed as value.
Attributes which are logical fields can contain either 0 (to set to off) or 1 (to set to on) and are displayed as "0|1".
If an attribute can contain one of several specific values then each possible entry is displayed and separated by a pipe symbol.
For example, in the statement:
the value entered may be "1", "2" or "3".
The name of the User or System data source to be created, as used by the application when calling the SQLConnect or SQLDriverConnect functions.
Descriptive text that may be retrieved by certain applications to describe the data source.
The URI of the Zoho CRM Account server. For example, https://accounts.zoho.eu/
The location of your Zoho CRM server. For example, eu.
The Zoho refresh token that enables the Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver to work with your Zoho CRM data.
If you use a proxy server connect to the internet, use the Proxy attribute to specify this server's details. The Proxy attribute has the following format:
where addess is the host name or IP address of the proxy server and port is the proxy server port. For example:
If your proxy server has authentication enabled, use this attribute to supply a user name that can connect to the proxy server.
The Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver supports the Basic and Digest proxy authentication schemes.
The password for the user you specified with Proxy User.
When ON (checked or set to "Yes"), the Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver increases its preferred batch size for queries, which alters the number of Zoho CRM API calls it makes. Zoho CRM may create batches that are larger or smaller than the requested size to maximise performance.
There is no one correct setting for Local Filtering, it depends on how your application executes its queries. You may find that Local FIltering increases query performance for one application and decreases performance for another.
By default, Local Filtering is OFF.
The time in minutes that Zoho CRM records wil be stored in the Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver's cache. The default timeout is 1 minute. If you set the timeout to 0, the Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver will not cache records.
To reduce Zoho CRM API usage and reduce the amount of data retrieved over the network, the Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver caches Zoho CRM records. By default, a record will remain in the cache until the timeout has elapsed.
Note that any changes to the record that happen at the Zoho CRM end will not be reflected in the cached copy until the cache is refreshed (i.e. the timeout expires and the record is fetched again.) If a cached record is changed by the Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver, the cache is refreshed to reflect this change.
Whether the Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver flushes its cache when it is used to update or delete Zoho CRM data. When this setting is enabled, the effect of your changes will apply in your current session. For example, you enable this attribute and delete a record. If you then do a select in the same session, the record will no longer be present in the result set, If you do the same with Flush On Update turned off, the result set contain the deleted record until the Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver cache expires or you reconnect your application (for example, you restart your SQL Server instance).
The maximum number of records to return for each Rest API request the Easysoft ODBC-Zoho CRM Driver makes.