Linux DSN Configuration
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) and Fedora.
Minimum Linux Versions
Here are the minimum supported versions for Red Hat-based and Debian-based systems:
OS | Min. Version |
Ubuntu | 18.04 |
Debian | 10 |
RHEL | 8 |
Fedora | 28 |
SUSE | 15 |
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/Fedora:
yum install glibc libstdc++ zlib libgcc
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/PayPalODBCDriverforUnix.deb
On systems that support the RPM package format, run the following command with root or sudo:
rpm -ivh /path/to/driver/PayPalODBCDriverforUnix.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-paypal/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 PayPal
The provider surfaces tables from two PayPal APIs. Each API uses a different authentication method.- The SOAP API requires Signature API credentials. To authenticate to the SOAP API, you must set the AuthScheme to Basic, and set the Username, Password, and Signature properties. These API credentials are generated when you enable the SOAP API.
- The REST API uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate to the REST API, you must set the AuthScheme to OAuth, and set the OAuthClientId, and OAuthClientSecret properties.
To specify your preferred API, set the Schema property to either REST or SOAP. If no Schema is set, PayPal uses the SOAP schema.
For testing purposes, set UseSandbox to true and use Sandbox credentials.
SOAP API
You can use the SOAP API to retrieve all transactions for the current account. The SOAP API uses the Signature API-credentials type, which has three credential values:
- API Username
- API Password
- API Signature
To generate the API credentials:
- Log in to your PayPal business account and select Profile > My Selling Tools.
- In the Selling Online section, click Update for the API Access item.
- To generate the API signature, click Request API Credentials on the API Access page.
- Select Request API Signature and click Agree and Submit to generate the API signature.
After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:
- User = the API Username.
- Password = the API Password.
- Signature = the Signature.
- UseSandbox = true if you are using sandbox credentials.
REST API
After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:
- OAuthClientId = the Client Id in your app settings.
- OAuthClientSecret = the Client Secret in your app settings.
- UseSandbox = true if you are using sandbox credentials.
When you connect, the driver completes the OAuth process. PayPal supports only OAuth authentication for use with the REST API. To enable this authentication from all OAuth flows, you must set AuthScheme to OAuth, and you must create a custom OAuth application.
The following subsections describe how to authenticate to PayPal from three common authentication flows. For information about how to create a custom OAuth application, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application. For a complete list of connection string properties available in PayPal, see Connection.
Desktop Applications
To authenticate with the credentials for a custom OAuth application, you must get and refresh the OAuth access token. After you do that, you are ready to connect.Get and refresh the OAuth access token:
- InitiateOAuth = GETANDREFRESH. Used to automatically get and refresh the OAuthAccessToken.
- OAuthClientId = the client Id assigned when you registered your application.
- OAuthClientSecret = the client secret that was assigned when you registered your application.
- CallbackURL = the redirect URI that was defined when you registered your application.
When you connect, the driver opens PayPal's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application.
When the access token expires, the driver refreshes it automatically.
Automatic refresh of the OAuth access token:
To have the driver automatically refresh the OAuth access token, do the following:
- Before connecting to data for the first time, set the following connection parameters:
- InitiateOAuth = REFRESH.
- OAuthClientId = the client Id in your application settings.
- OAuthClientSecret = the client secret in your application settings.
- OAuthAccessToken = the access token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
- OAuthSettingsLocation = the path where you want the driver to save the OAuth values, which persist across connections.
- On subsequent data connections, set the following:
- InitiateOAuth
- OAuthSettingsLocation
Manual refresh of the OAuth access token:
The only value needed to manually refresh the OAuth access token is the OAuth refresh token.
- To manually refresh the OAuthAccessToken after the ExpiresIn period (returned by GetOAuthAccessToken) has elapsed, call the RefreshOAuthAccessToken stored procedure.
- Set the following connection properties:
- OAuthClientId = the Client Id in your application settings.
- OAuthClientSecret = the Client Secret in your application settings.
- Call RefreshOAuthAccessToken with OAuthRefreshToken set to the OAuth refresh token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
- After the new tokens have been retrieved, set the OAuthAccessToken property to the value returned by RefreshOAuthAccessToken. This opens a new connection.
Store the OAuth refresh token so that you can use it to manually refresh the OAuth access token after it has expired.
Headless Machines
If you need to log in to a resource that resides on a headless machine, you must authenticate on another device that has an internet browser. You can do this by installing the driver on a machine with an internet browser and transfer the OAuth authentication values after you authenticate through the usual browser-based flow. Set the connection properties as described above in "Desktop Applications".
After completing the instructions in "Desktop Applications", the resulting authentication values are encrypted and written to the path specified by OAuthSettingsLocation. The default filename is OAuthSettings.txt.
Test the connection to generate the OAuth settings file, then copy the OAuth settings file to your headless machine.
To connect to data via the headless machine, set the following connection properties:
- InitiateOAuth = REFRESH
- OAuthSettingsLocation = the path to the OAuth settings file you copied from the machine with the browser. To enable automatic refreshing of the access token, ensure that this file gives read and write permissions to the driver.
- OAuthClientId = the client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
- OAuthClientSecret = the client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
When you are finished, configure the driver to automatically refresh the access token on the headless machine.
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. Or, you can set the OAuthSettingsLocation connection property to an alternate file path, to which the driver would have read and write access.
OAuthSettingsLocation=/tmp/oauthsettings.txt
Installing Dependencies for OAuth Authentication
The OAuth authentication standard requires the authenticating user to interact with PayPal, 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/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-paypal/lib/cdata.odbc.paypal.ini':
[Driver]
AnsiCodePage = 932