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Exact Online Connector Setup

Version 24.2.9039

Exact Online Connector Setup

The Exact Online connector allows you to integrate Exact Online into your data flow by pushing or pulling data from Exact Online. Follow the steps below to connect CData Arc to Exact Online.

Establish a Connection

To allow Arc to use data from Exact Online, you must first establish a connection to Exact Online. There are two ways to establish this connection:

  • Add a Exact Online connector to your flow. Then, in the settings pane, click Create next to the Connection drop-down list.
  • Open the Arc Settings page, then open the Connections tab. Click Add, select Exact Online, and click Next.

Note:

  • The login process is only required the first time the connection is created.
  • Connections to Exact Online can be re-used across multiple Exact Online connectors.

Enter Connection Settings

After opening a new connection dialogue, follow these steps:

  1. Enter a name for the connection.

  2. In a new browser tab or window, open Exact Online.

  3. If you have not already done so, create an Exact Online developer account.

  4. Open the App Center and click Manage Apps > Add a New Application.

  5. Set the value for Redirect URI to a value in this format: [baseURL]/src/oauthCallback.rst

    • The value for [baseURL] is the URL that you use to access Arc. For example, https://localhost:8080 or https://myArcServer.com

    • The complete URI might look something like https://localhost:8080/src/oauthCallback.rst

  6. Save your application, then click Edit to display the client Id and client secret. Copy these values.

  7. Return to Arc. Select your Region, and enter your OAuth Client Id and OAuth Client Secret values in the connection modal.

  8. If needed, click Advanced to open the drop-down menu of advanced connection settings. These should not be needed in most cases.

  9. Click Connect. If you are not still logged into your Exact Online account, log in.

  10. If prompted, grant permissions for Arc to connect to Exact Online. You are then returned to Arc.

  11. Click Add Connection to finalize the connection.

  12. In the Connection drop-down list of the connector configuration pane, select the newly-created connection.

  13. Click Save Changes.

Note: There are also data source-specific authentication and configuration options on the Advanced tab. They are not all described in this documentation, but you can find detailed information for your data source on the Online Help Files page of the CData website.

Select an Action

After establishing a connection to Exact Online, you must choose the action that the Exact Online connector will perform. The table below outlines each action and where it belongs in an Arc flow.

Action Description Position in Flow
Upsert Inserts or updates Exact Online data. By default, if a record already exists in Exact Online, an update is performed on the existing data in Exact Online using the values provided from the input. End
Lookup Retrieves values from Exact Online and inserts those values into an already-existing Arc message in the flow.
The Lookup Query determines what value the connector will retrieve from Exact Online. It should be formatted as a SQL query against the Exact Online tables.		 Middle
Lookup Stored Procedure Treats data coming into the connector as input for a stored procedure, then inserts the result into an existing Arc message in the flow.
You can click the Show Sample Data button in the Test Lookup modal to provide sample inputs to the selected Stored Procedure and preview the results.		 Middle
Select Retrieves data from Exact Online and brings it into Arc.
You can use the Filter panel to add filters to the Select. These filters function similarly to WHERE clauses in SQL.		 Beginning
Execute Stored Procedures Treats data coming into the connector as input for a stored procedure, then passes the result down the flow.
You can click the Show Sample Data button in the Test Execute Stored Procedure modal to provide sample inputs to the selected Stored Procedure and preview the results.		 Middle

Automation Tab

Automation Settings

Settings related to the automatic processing of files by the connector.

  • Send Whether files arriving at the connector are automatically sent.
  • Retry Interval The number of minutes before a failed send is retried.
  • Max Attempts The maximum number of times the connector processes the file. Success is measured based on a successful server acknowledgement. If you set this to 0, the connector retries the file indefinitely.
  • Receive Whether the connector should automatically query the data source.
  • Receive Interval The interval between automatic query attempts.
  • Minutes Past the Hour The minutes offset for an hourly schedule. Only applicable when the interval setting above is set to Hourly. For example, if this value is set to 5, the automation service downloads at 1:05, 2:05, 3:05, etc.
  • Time The time of day that the attempt should occur. Only applicable when the interval setting above is set to Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
  • Day The day on which the attempt should occur. Only applicable when the interval setting above is set to Weekly or Monthly.
  • Minutes The number of minutes to wait before attempting the download. Only applicable when the interval setting above is set to Minute.
  • Cron Expression A five-position string representing a cron expression that determines when the attempt should occur. Only applicable when the interval setting above is set to Advanced.

Performance

Settings related to the allocation of resources to the connector.

  • Max Workers The maximum number of worker threads consumed from the threadpool to process files on this connector. If set, this overrides the default setting on the Settings > Automation page.
  • Max Files The maximum number of files sent by each thread assigned to the connector. If set, this overrides the default setting on the Settings > Automation page.

Alerts Tab

Settings related to configuring alerts and Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

Connector Email Settings

Before you can execute SLAs, you need to set up email alerts for notifications. Clicking Configure Alerts opens a new browser window to the Settings page where you can set up system-wide alerts. See Alerts for more information.

Service Level Agreement (SLA) Settings

SLAs enable you to configure the volume you expect connectors in your flow to send or receive, and to set the time frame in which you expect that volume to be met. CData Arc sends emails to warn the user when an SLA is not met, and marks the SLA as At Risk, which means that if the SLA is not met soon, it will be marked as Violated. This gives the user an opportunity to step in and determine the reasons the SLA is not being met, and to take appropriate actions. If the SLA is still not met at the end of the at-risk time period, the SLA is marked as violated, and the user is notified again.

To define an SLA, click Add Expected Volume Criteria.

  • If your connector has separate send and receive actions, use the radio buttons to specify which direction the SLA pertains to.
  • Set Expect at least to the minimum number of transactions (the volume) you expect to be processed, then use the Every fields to specify the time frame.
  • By default, the SLA is in effect every day. To change that, uncheck Everyday then check the boxes for the days of the week you want.
  • Use And set status to ‘At Risk’ to indicate when the SLA should be marked as at risk.
  • By default, notifications are not sent until an SLA is in violation. To change that, check Send an ‘At Risk’ notification.

The following example shows an SLA configured for a connector that expects to receive 1000 files every day Monday-Friday. An at-risk notification is sent 1 hour before the end of the time period if the 1000 files have not been received.

Advanced Tab

Many of the settings on the Advanced tab are dynamically loaded from the data source you are working with, so they are not covered in this documentation. You can find detailed information for your data source on the Online Help Files page of the CData website.

The options described below are available for all data sources.

Message

  • Save to Sent Folder Check this to copy files processed by the connector to the Sent folder for the connector.
  • Sent Folder Scheme Instructs the connector to group messages in the Sent folder according to the selected interval. For example, the Weekly option instructs the connector to create a new subfolder each week and store all messages for the week in that folder. The blank setting tells the connector to save all messages directly in the Sent folder. For connectors that process many messages, using subfolders helps keep messsages organized and improves performance.

Advanced Settings

Advanced settings are common settings for connectors that rely on arbitrary database drivers (for example, Database, CData, and API connectors) in order to make connections to various data sources.

  • Auto Truncate When enabled, the connector automatically truncates any string or binary column values that are longer than the allowed limit.
  • Command Timeout The command execution timeout duration in seconds.
  • Last Inserted Id Query Provide a query to execute to retrieve the auto-increased Id for the last inserted record.
  • Log Level The verbosity of logs generated by the connector. When you request support, set this to Debug.
  • Local File Scheme A scheme for assigning filenames to messages that are output by the connector. You can use macros in your filenames dynamically to include information such as identifiers and timestamps. For more information, see Macros.
  • Log Messages When checked, the connector keeps a copy of the message next to the logs for the message in the Logs directory. If you disable this, you might not be able to download a copy of the file from the Input or Output tabs.
  • Max Failed Records The maximum number of records that are allowed to fail during insertion to allow processing to continue. The default value of 0 means that any errors cause the input message to be marked as an Error, and any uncommitted transactions are rolled back. A value of -1 means that all errors are ignored and the connector continues attempting to insert subsequent records. A positive value means that the connector continues attempting to insert records until the threshold is reached.
  • Output File Format The format in which output data is represented. The default value (XML) causes the connector to output an XML file for every record that is processed, while optionally combining multiple records into a single data structure (depending on the value of Max Records). The CSV and TSV options output data in their respective file formats. This option is not available for complex table structures that include child tables.
  • Process Changes Interval Unit Applicable to Select action only. When Use column columnname for processing new or changed records is checked in the Advanced portion of the Select Configuration section of the Settings tab, this controls how to interpret the Process Changes Interval setting (for example, Hours, Days, or Weeks). See Only Process New or Changed Records for details on this and the following two settings.
  • Process Changes Interval When Use column columnname for processing new or changed records is checked on the Select Configuration section of the Settings tab, this controls how much historical data Arc attempts to process on the first attempt. For example, keeping the default of 180 (Days) means Arc only attempts to process data that has been created or modified in the last 180 days.
  • Process Changes Start Date When Use column columnname for processing new or changed records is checked on the Select Configuration section of the Settings tab, this controls the start date of the data to retrieve.
  • Reset History Resets the cache stored when Use column columnname for processing new or changed records is checked.
  • Batch Input Size The maximum number of queries in a batch if batches are supported by the data source.
  • Batch Size The maximum number of batch messages in a batch group.
  • Max Records The maximum number of records to include in a single output message. Use -1 to indicate that all output records should be put in a single file, and use 0 to indicate that the connector can decide based on the configured Output File Format. By default, XML outputs one record per file, and flat file formats include all records in one file.
  • Transaction Size The maximum number of queries in a transaction.
  • Processing Delay The amount of time (in seconds) by which the processing of files placed in the Input folder is delayed. This is a legacy setting. Best practice is to use a File connector to manage local file systems instead of this setting.
  • Log Subfolder Scheme Instructs the connector to group files in the Logs folder according to the selected interval. For example, the Weekly option instructs the connector to create a new subfolder each week and store all logs for the week in that folder. The blank setting tells the connector to save all logs directly in the Logs folder. For connectors that process many transactions, using subfolders can help keep logs organized and improve performance.

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous settings are for specific use cases.

  • Other Settings Enables you to configure hidden connector settings in a semicolon-separated list (for example, setting1=value1;setting2=value2). Normal connector use cases and functionality should not require the use of these settings.

Macros

Using macros in file naming strategies can enhance organizational efficiency and contextual understanding of data. By incorporating macros into filenames, you can dynamically include relevant information such as identifiers, timestamps, and header information, providing valuable context to each file. This helps ensure that filenames reflect details important to your organization.

CData Arc supports these macros, which all use the following syntax: %Macro%.

Macro Description
ConnectorID Evaluates to the ConnectorID of the connector.
Ext Evaluates to the file extension of the file currently being processed by the connector.
Filename Evaluates to the filename (extension included) of the file currently being processed by the connector.
FilenameNoExt Evaluates to the filename (without the extension) of the file currently being processed by the connector.
MessageId Evaluates to the MessageId of the message being output by the connector.
RegexFilename:pattern Applies a RegEx pattern to the filename of the file currently being processed by the connector.
Header:headername Evaluates to the value of a targeted header (headername) on the current message being processed by the connector.
LongDate Evaluates to the current datetime of the system in long-handed format (for example, Wednesday, January 24, 2024).
ShortDate Evaluates to the current datetime of the system in a yyyy-MM-dd format (for example, 2024-01-24).
DateFormat:format Evaluates to the current datetime of the system in the specified format (format). See Sample Date Formats for the available datetime formats
Vault:vaultitem Evaluates to the value of the specified vault item.

Examples

Some macros, such as %Ext% and %ShortDate%, do not require an argument, but others do. All macros that take an argument use the following syntax: %Macro:argument%

Here are some examples of the macros that take an argument:

  • %Header:headername%: Where headername is the name of a header on a message.
  • %Header:mycustomheader% resolves to the value of the mycustomheader header set on the input message.
  • %Header:ponum% resolves to the value of the ponum header set on the input message.
  • %RegexFilename:pattern%: Where pattern is a regex pattern. For example, %RegexFilename:^([\w][A-Za-z]+)% matches and resolves to the first word in the filename and is case insensitive (test_file.xml resolves to test).
  • %Vault:vaultitem%: Where vaultitem is the name of an item in the vault. For example, %Vault:companyname% resolves to the value of the companyname item stored in the vault.
  • %DateFormat:format%: Where format is an accepted date format (see Sample Date Formats for details). For example, %DateFormat:yyyy-MM-dd-HH-mm-ss-fff% resolves to the date and timestamp on the file.

You can also create more sophisticated macros, as shown in the following examples:

  • Combining multiple macros in one filename: %DateFormat:yyyy-MM-dd-HH-mm-ss-fff%%EXT%
  • Including text outside of the macro: MyFile_%DateFormat:yyyy-MM-dd-HH-mm-ss-fff%
  • Including text within the macro: %DateFormat:'DateProcessed-'yyyy-MM-dd_'TimeProcessed-'HH-mm-ss%