Connecting to DynamicsNav

The Sisense Microsoft Dynamics Nav connector is a certified connector that allows you to import data from the Dynamics Nav API into Sisense via the Sisense generic JDBC connector. The Microsoft Dynamics Nav connector offers the most natural way to connect to Microsoft Dynamics Nav account data, including Items, Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, and more, and provides additional powerful features.

The support for the connector is provided by Sisense and will be assisted by the certification partner's support, if needed. For any support issues or additional functionality requests, contact your Sisense representative or open a request through the Sisense Help Center. For advanced inquiries specific to driver functionality, you can also contact the certification partner's support directly via support@cdata.com.

After you have downloaded and installed the connector, you can connect through a connection string you provide Sisense. The connection string is used to authenticate users who connect to the Microsoft Dynamics Nav tables. To obtain a connection string, you will need to obtain your credentials from Dynamics Nav. Once you have connected to Dynamics Nav, you can import a variety of tables from Dynamics Nav.

This page describes how to download the Microsoft Dynamics Nav driver and deploy it, how to connect to Dynamics Nav with a connection string, provides information about the Dynamics Nav data model, and more.

Downloading the Dynamics Nav JDBC Driver

You can download the Dynamics Nav JDBC driver here.

For a short video about downloading the driver, see below (the video uses the Box driver as an example).

Deploying the Dynamics Nav JDBC Driver

Prerequisite: The install file (setup.jar) is a Java Application that requires Java 6 (J2SE) or above to run.

To install the driver, double-click the setup.jar file and proceed with the instructions in the installation wizard.

Depending on the machine on which you are accessing the Sisense application, install the driver in one of the following locations:

• When Sisense is installed on your local machine, deploy the driver locally.
• For a non-local installation (when accessing Sisense on a remote Windows server, or accessing the Sisense hosted cloud environment), select one of the below methods:
  • Deploy the driver on the Sisense server machine, and then perform all the authentication on the server machine.
  • Deploy the driver on your local machine (or any other machine, as convenient), perform all the authentication on that machine, and then copy the JAR file to the remote server. For detailed instructions, see Copying a CData JAR File Installed Locally to a Remote Server.
• If you are on a Linux deployment , deploy the driver on your local machine (or any other machine), perform all the authentication on that machine, and then copy the JAR file to this location: /opt/sisense/storage/connectors/jdbcdrivers/driver_name_folder
  For detailed instructions, see Copying a CData JAR File Installed Locally to a Remote Server.

For a short video of the process, see below (the video uses the Box driver as an example).

JAVA Troubleshooting

If you do not have Java 6 installed, you may download it from here.

If your system is not set up to run Java applications, execute the following command: java -jar setup.jar.

Connecting to Dynamics Nav

The connection string used to connect to the Microsoft Dynamics Nav connects to various instances you have in the Dynamics Nav. By providing your Dynamics Nav credentials as values in the connection string, you can add data from your Dynamic Nav tables to the ElastiCube.

To create the connection string:

1. Open the lib directory for the connector. The default path is: C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for <Driver Name> 2019\lib

2. Double-click the JAR file in the lib directory.

   

   Alternatively, to open the JAR file from the command line, enter the following command in the command prompt (change the driver name to your driver):

   cd C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for <Driver Name> 2019\lib

   Press Enter and enter the following command (change the driver name to your driver):

   "C:\Program Files\Sisense\infra\jre\bin\java.exe" -jar cdata.jdbc.<Driver Name>.jar.

   Press Enter again.

   Example:

   

   The Connection String Builder opens.

3. Enter the values for the following connection properties (click in the Value column to enter a value or to modify an existing value):

   • URL: URL to the Dynamics Nav server organization root. For example, http://MyServer:7048.
   • User: The user who is authenticating to the Dynamics Nav server.
   • Password: The password used to authenticate to the Dynamics Nav server.
   • ServerInstance: The instance of the Dynamics Nav server. For example, DynamicsNAV71.

   In addition, when the CacheLocation property is set, the driver will cache metadata to the specified file, ensuring that queries execute more quickly. CacheLocation specifies the path to the cache when caching to a file.

   If there is not a Service Default Company for the server, set the Company as well, where Company is the company to submit queries against, for example, CRONUS Canada, Inc. In a multitenant installation, specify the tenant Id in Tenant.

4. If the Connection String Builder has a InitiateOAuth property, set it to OFF to avoid entering the OAuth Authorization process.

   Note:

   This property may not appear for some connectors.

5. Press Enter to add all the connection properties to the connection string.

   Example:

   An example of the connection string:

   jdbc:dynamicsnav:URL=http://myserver:7048;User=myserver\Administrator;Password=admin;ServerInstance=DYNAMICSNAV71;

6. Click Test Connection. A new browser tab opens where you need to log in to your application in order to grant access. (Each application displays a different window and messages.)

   Close the Authorization Successful! message that opens.

7. Go back to the Connection String Builder dialog, and click OK in the Test Connection Successful message to close it.
8. Click Copy to Clipboard to obtain the connection string.

For a short video of the process, see below (the video uses the XML driver as an example):

You are required to complete the above instructions only on first connect, and again when your credentials to the application change.

To help you create a connection string and test the connection, see Connection String Builder for Certified Connectors.

If you have any issues connecting to your data source, see Troubleshooting JDBC Data Connectors.

Adding Dynamics Nav Tables to your ElastiCube

1. Open Sisense. (For a non-local installation, open Sisense on the hosted cloud environment.)

2. In the Data page, open an ElastiCube or create a new ElastiCube.

3. In the Model Editor, click . The Add Data dialog box is displayed.

   

4. Click Generic JDBC to open the JDBC settings.

   

5. In Connection String, paste the string you obtained above.
6. In JDBC JARs Folder, enter the name of the directory where the Dynamics NAV JAR file is located (see Deploying the Dynamics Nav JDBC Driver).
7. In Driver's Class Name, enter the following class name: cdata.jdbc.dynamicsnav.DynamicsNAVDriver
8. If you wish to secure the connection, enter your Dynamic NAV credentials in User Name and Password and remove the relevant properties from the connection string. Otherwise, leave these fields blank.
9. Click Next. A list of tables in the database are displayed. All tables and views associated with the database appear in a new window.
10. From the Tables list, select the relevant table or view you want to work with. You can click next to the relevant table or click Preview to see a preview of the data inside it.
11. (Optional) Click + to customize the data you want to import with SQL. For more information, see Importing Data with Custom Queries.
12. After you have selected all the relevant tables, click Done. The tables are added to your data model.

For a short video of the process, see below (the video uses the XML driver as an example):

Dynamics Nav Connector: Additional Resources

For the full documentation set for the Dynamics Nav connector, click here.

For connection string options, click here.

For information about the Dynamics Nav data model, click here.