This section describes how to set up ODBC connectivity and configure DSNs on several Linux distributions: Debian-based systems, like Ubuntu, and Red Hat Linux platforms, like Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), CentOS, and Fedora.

Minimum Linux Versions

Here are the minimum supported versions for Red Hat-based and Debian-based systems:

OS	Min. Version
Ubuntu	11.04
Debian	7
RHEL	6.9
CentOS	6.9
Fedora	13
SUSE	12.1

Installing the Driver Dependencies

Run the following commands as root or with sudo to install the necessary dependencies:

• Debian/Ubuntu:
  

  apt-get install libc6 libstdc++6 zlib1g libgcc1

• RHEL/CentOS/Fedora:
  

  yum install glibc libstdc++ zlib libgcc

Here are the corresponding libraries required by the driver:

Debian/Ubuntu Package	RHEL/CentOS/Fedora Package	File
libc6	glibc	linux-vdso.1
libc6	glibc	libm.so.6
libc6	glibc	librt.so.1
libc6	glibc	libdl.so.2
libc6	glibc	libpthread.so.0
libc6	glibc	libc.so.6
libc6	glibc	ld-linux-x86-64.so.2
libstdc++6	libstdc++	libstdc++.so.6
zlib1g	zlib	libz.so.1
libgcc1	libgcc	libgcc_s.so.1

Installing the Driver

You can use standard package management systems to install the driver.

On Debian-based systems, like Ubuntu, run the following command with root or sudo:

dpkg -i /path/to/driver/setup/ReckonAccountsHostedODBCDriverforUnix.deb 

On systems that support the RPM package format, run the following command with root or sudo:

rpm -ivh /path/to/driver/ReckonAccountsHostedODBCDriverforUnix.rpm 

Licensing the Driver

Run the following commands to license the driver. To activate a trial, omit the <key> input.

cd /opt/cdata/cdata-odbc-driver-for-reckonaccountshosted/bin/
sudo ./install-license.sh <key>

Connecting through the Driver Manager

The driver manager loads the driver and passes function calls from the application to the driver. You need to register the driver with the driver manager and you define DSNs in the driver manager's configuration files.

The driver installation registers the driver with the unixODBC driver manager and creates a system DSN. The unixODBC driver manager can be used from Python and from many other applications. Your application may embed another driver manager.

Creating the DSN

See Using unixODBC to install unixODBC and configure DSNs. See Using the DataDirect Driver Manager to create a DSN to connect to OBIEE, Informatica, and SAS.

Connecting to Reckon Accounts Hosted

The driver makes requests to Reckon Accounts Hosted through OAuth. Specify the following connection properties:

• User: Required. The username of the company file.
• Password: Required. The password of the company file.
• CompanyFile: Required. The path to the company file.
• InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH to let the driver handle access tokens.
• CountryVersion: Defaults to 2021.R2.AU.

You can also create a custom OAuth application, and then specify the following additional connection properties:

• SubscriptionKey: API Key retrieved from Reckon Portal on the Azure Platform.
• OAuthClientId: Set to the Client ID in your app settings.
• OAuthClientSecret: Set to the Client Secret in your app settings.
• CallbackURL: The redirect URI of your Custom OAuth App.

Desktop Authentication

CData provides an embedded OAuth application that simplifies OAuth desktop authentication. Alternatively, you can create a custom application. See Creating a Custom OAuth App for information on creating custom applications and reasons for doing so.

For authentication, the only difference between the two methods is that you must set two additional properties in custom applications.

With embedded OAuth you can connect without your user credentials, whereas custom applications require that you specify Client Id and Client Secret properties. After setting the following, you are ready to connect:

1. AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
2. OAuthClientId: Set to the Client ID in your app settings.*
3. OAuthClientSecret: Set to the Client Secret in your app settings.*

* Only required when using a custom application.

When you connect the driver opens the OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application. The driver then completes the OAuth process as follows:

Using OAuth on a Headless Machine

To create Reckon Accounts Hosted data sources on headless servers or other machines on which the driver cannot open a browser, you need to authenticate from another machine. Authentication is a two-step process.

1. Instead of installing the driver on another machine, you can follow the steps below to obtain the OAuthVerifier value. Or, you can install the driver on another machine and transfer the OAuth authentication values, after you authenticate through the usual browser-based flow.
2. You can then configure the driver to automatically refresh the access token from the headless machine.

You can follow the headless OAuth authentication flow using the driver's embedded OAuth credentials or using the OAuth credentials for your custom OAuth app.

Using the Credentials for a Custom OAuth App

Create a Custom OAuth App

See Creating a Custom OAuth App for information about creating a custom application. After you create your custom app, follow the steps below to authenticate and connect to data.

Obtain a Verifier Code

Set the following properties on the headless machine:

• InitiateOAuth: Set this to OFF.
• OAuthClientId: Set this to the App Id in your app settings.
• OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the App Secret in your app settings.

You can then follow the steps below to authenticate from another machine and obtain the OAuthVerifier connection property.

1. Call the GetOAuthAuthorizationURL stored procedure with the CallbackURL input parameter set to the exact Redirect URI you specified in your app settings.
2. Open the returned URL in a browser. Log in and grant permissions to the driver. You are then redirected to the callback URL, which contains the verifier code.
3. Save the value of the verifier code. You will set this in the OAuthVerifier connection property.

On the headless machine, set the following connection properties to obtain the OAuth authentication values:

• OAuthClientId: Set this to the consumer key in your app settings.
• OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the consumer secret in your app settings.
• OAuthVerifier: Set this to the verifier code.
• OAuthSettingsLocation: Set this to persist the encrypted OAuth authentication values to the specified file.
• InitiateOAuth: Set this to REFRESH.

Connect to Data

After the OAuth settings file is generated, set the following properties to connect to data:

• OAuthSettingsLocation: Set this to the file containing the encrypted OAuth authentication values. Make sure this file gives read and write permissions to the provider to enable the automatic refreshing of the access token.
• InitiateOAuth: Set this to REFRESH.

Transfer OAuth Settings

Follow the steps below to install the driver on another machine, authenticate, and then transfer the resulting OAuth values.

On a second machine, install the driver and connect with the following properties set:

• OAuthSettingsLocation: Set this to a writable text file.
• OAuthClientId: Set this to the Client Id in your app settings.
• OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the Client Secret in your app settings.
• CallbackURL: Set this to the Callback URL in your app settings.

Test the connection to authenticate. The resulting authentication values are written, encrypted, to the path specified by OAuthSettingsLocation. Once you have successfully tested the connection, copy the OAuth settings file to your headless machine. On the headless machine, set the following connection properties to connect to data:

• InitiateOAuth: Set this to REFRESH.
• OAuthSettingsLocation: Set this to the path to your OAuth settings file. Make sure this file gives read and write permissions to the driver to enable the automatic refreshing of the access token.

Refreshing OAuth Values

The driver can refresh the temporary OAuth access tokens obtained during the browser-based OAuth authentication exchange. By default, the driver saves the encrypted tokens in the odbc.ini file corresponding to the DSN. Access to this odbc.ini file can be restricted in the case of System DSNs.

To enable the automatic token exchange, you can give the driver write access to the system odbc.ini.

Installing Dependencies for OAuth Authentication

The OAuth authentication standard requires the authenticating user to interact with Reckon Accounts Hosted, using a web-browser. If the first OAuth interaction is to be done on the same machine the driver is installed on, for example, a desktop application, the driver needs access to the xdg-open program, which opens the default browser.

To satisfy this dependency, install the corresponding package with your package manager:

Debian/Ubuntu Package	RHEL/CentOS/Fedora Package	File
xdg-utils	xdg-utils	xdg-open

Set the Driver Encoding

The ODBC drivers need to specify which encoding to use with the ODBC Driver Manager. By default, the CData ODBC Drivers for Unix are configured to use UTF-16 which is compatible with unixODBC, but other Driver Managers may require alternative encoding.

Alternatively, if you are using the ODBC driver from an application that uses the ANSI ODBC API it may be necessary to set the ANSI code page. For example, to import Japanese characters in an ANSI application, you can specify the code page in the config file '/opt/cdata/cdata-odbc-driver-for-reckonaccountshosted/lib/cdata.odbc.reckonaccountshosted.ini':

[Driver]
AnsiCodePage = 932