Establishing a Connection

Creating a JDBC Data Source

You can create a JDBC data source to connect from your Java application. Creating a JDBC data source based on the CData JDBC Driver for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central consists of three basic steps:

Add the driver JAR file to the classpath. The JAR file is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory. Note that the .lic file must be located in the same folder as the JAR file.

Provide the driver class. For example:

cdata.jdbc.d365businesscentral.D365BusinessCentralDriver

Provide the JDBC URL. For example:
```
jdbc:d365businesscentral:InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OrganizationUrl=https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v1.0/api/v1.0

or

jdbc:cdata:d365businesscentral:InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OrganizationUrl=https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v1.0/api/v1.0
```
The second format above can be used whenever there is a conflict in your application between drivers using the same URL format to ensure you are using the CData driver. The URL must start with either "jdbc:d365businesscentral:" or "jdbc:cdata:d365businesscentral:" and can include any of the connection properties in name-value pairs separated with semicolons.

To connect to data, specify OrganizationUrl. The OrganizationUrl should be set to one of the following:

The endpoint to your business central account such as https://businesscentral.dynamics.com/abc123/
The web services root.
The custom API base url.

Please see Business Central Endpoints for more details on how to specify the OrganizationUrl and which endpoints are available.

If you have multiple companies in your organization, you must also specify the Company to indicate which company you would like to connect to. Company does not need to be specified if you have only one company.

User and Access Key

Note: User and Access key Authentication will not be supported for cloud version starting in Apr 2021. For on-premises, Web Service Access Key (Basic Auth) will remain an option for the time being.

To use Access Key auth, set the AuthScheme to Access Key. To authenticate to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, you may provide the User and AccessKey connection properties. Microsoft recommends these for testing and development purposes, but discourages their use for production environments.

To obtain the User and AccessKey values, navigate to the Users page in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and then click on Edit. The User Name and Web Service Access Key values are what you will enter as the User and AccessKey connection string properties. Note that the User Name is not your email address. It is a shortened user name.

Connecting to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

To authenticate to the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central source, you should first set the OrganizationUrl to the URL of the organization you are connecting to, such as https://businesscentral.dynamics.com/abc123/.

Access Key

Set the User along with the AccessKey to authenticate to the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central source.

Azure AD

Azure AD is a connection type that leverages OAuth to authenticate. OAuth requires the authenticating user to interact with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central using an internet browser. The driver facilitates this in several ways as described below. Set your AuthScheme to AzureAD. All AzureAD flows assume that you have done so.

Desktop Applications

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

For authentication, the only difference between the two methods is that you must set two additional connection properties when using custom OAuth applications.

After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
OAuthClientId: (custom applications only) Set this to the client Id in your application settings.
OAuthClientSecret: (custom applications only) Set this to the client secret in your application settings.
CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URL in your application settings.

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:

Extracts the access token from the callback URL and authenticates requests.
Obtains a new access token when the old one expires.
Saves OAuth values in OAuthSettingsLocation that persist across connections.

Web Applications

When connecting via a Web application, you need to register a custom OAuth app with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. See Creating a Custom AzureAD App. You can then use the driver to get and manage the OAuth token values. Get an OAuth Access Token

Set one of the following connection properties groups depending on the authentication type to obtain the OAuthAccessToken:

Authenticating using a Client Secret
- OAuthClientId: Set this to the client Id in your app settings.
- OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client secret in your app settings.
Authenticating using a Certificate
- OAuthClientId: Set this to the client Id in your app settings.
- OAuthJWTCert: Set this to the JWT Certificate store.
- OAuthJWTCertType: Set this to the type of the certificate store specified by OAuthJWTCert.

You can then call stored procedures to complete the OAuth exchange:

Call the GetOAuthAuthorizationUrl stored procedure. Set the AuthMode input to WEB and set the CallbackURL input to the Redirect URI you specified in your app settings. If necessary, set the Permissions parameter to request custom permissions.

The stored procedure returns the URL to the OAuth endpoint.
Open the URL, log in, and authorize the application. You are redirected back to the callback URL.
Call the GetOAuthAccessToken stored procedure. Set the AuthMode input to WEB. Set the Verifier input to the "code" parameter in the query string of the callback URL. If necessary, set the Permissions parameter to request custom permissions.

To connect to data, set the OAuthAccessToken connection property to the access token returned by the stored procedure. When the access token expires after ExpiresIn seconds, call GetOAuthAccessToken again to obtain a new access token.

Headless Machines

To configure the driver to use OAuth with a user account on a headless machine, you need to authenticate on another device that has an internet browser.

Choose one of these two options:
- Option 1: Obtain the OAuthVerifier value as described in "Obtain and Exchange a Verifier Code" below.
- Option 2: Install the driver on another machine and transfer the OAuth authentication values after you authenticate through the usual browser-based flow, as described in "Transfer OAuth Settings" below.
Then configure the driver to automatically refresh the access token from the headless machine.

Option 1: Obtain and Exchange a Verifier Code

To obtain a verifier code, you must authenticate at the OAuth authorization URL.

Follow the steps below to authenticate from the machine with an internet browser and obtain the OAuthVerifier connection property.

Choose one of these options:
- If you are using the Embedded OAuth Application click Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central OAuth endpoint to open the endpoint in your browser.
- If you are using a custom OAuth application, create the Authorization URL by setting the following properties:
  - InitiateOAuth: Set to OFF.
  - OAuthClientId: Set to the client Id assigned when you registered your application.
  - OAuthClientSecret: Set to the client secret assigned when you registered your application.
  Then call the GetOAuthAuthorizationUrl stored procedure with the appropriate CallbackURL. Open the URL returned by the stored procedure in a browser.
Log in and grant permissions to the driver. You are then redirected to the callback URL, which contains the verifier code.
Save the value of the verifier code. Later you will set this in the OAuthVerifier connection property.

Next, you need to exchange the OAuth verifier code for OAuth refresh and access tokens. Set the following properties:

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

InitiateOAuth: Set this to REFRESH.
OAuthVerifier: Set this to the verifier code.
OAuthClientId: (custom applications only) Set this to the client Id in your custom OAuth application settings.
OAuthClientSecret: (custom applications only) Set this to the client secret in the custom OAuth application settings.
OAuthSettingsLocation: Set this to the path to the file where the driver saves the OAuth token values that persist across connections.

After the OAuth settings file is generated, you need to re-set the following properties to connect:

InitiateOAuth: Set this to REFRESH.
OAuthClientId: (custom applications only) Set this to the client Id assigned when you registered your application.
OAuthClientSecret: (custom applications only) Set this to the client secret assigned when you registered your application.
OAuthSettingsLocation: Set this to the file containing the encrypted OAuth authentication values. Make sure this file grants read and write permissions to the driver to enable the automatic refreshing of the access token.

Option 2: Transfer OAuth Settings

Prior to connecting on a headless machine, you need to create and install a connection with the driver on a device that supports an internet browser. Set the connection properties as described in "Desktop Applications" above.

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.

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.
OAuthClientId: (custom applications only) Set this to the client Id assigned when you registered your application.
OAuthClientSecret: (custom applications only) Set this to the client secret assigned when you registered your application.
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.

Admin Consent

Admin consent refers to when the Admin for an Azure Active Directory tenant grants permissions to an application which requires an admin to consent to the use case. The embedded app within the CData JDBC Driver for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, contains no permissions that require admin consent. Therefore, this information applies only to custom applications.

Admin Consent Permissions

When creating a new AzureAD app in the Azure Portal, you must specify which permissions the app will require. Some permissions may be marked as "Admin Consent Required". For example, all Groups permissions require Admin Consent. If your app requires admin consent, there are a couple of ways this can be done.

The easiest way to grant admin consent is to just have an admin log into portal.azure.com and navigate to the app you have created in App Registrations. Under API Permissions, click Grant Consent for your app to have permissions on the tenant under which it was created.

If your organization has multiple tenants or you need to grant application permissions for other tenants outside your organization, use the GetAdminConsentURL stored procedure to generate the Admin Authorization URL. Unlike the GetOAuthAuthorizationUrl, there will be no important information returned from this endpoint. After the OAuth application is successfully authorized, it returns a Boolean indicating that permissions have been granted.

After the administrator has approved the OAuth Application, you can continue to authenticate.

Azure Service Principal

Azure Service Principal is a connection type that goes through OAuth. Set your AuthScheme to AzureServicePrincipal. The authentication as an Azure Service Principal is handled via the OAuth Client Credentials flow, and it does not involve direct user authentication. Instead, credentials are created for just the app itself. All tasks taken by the app are done without a default user context, but based on the assigned roles. The application access to the resources is controlled through the assigned roles' permissions.

Note: You must create a custom application prior to assigning a role. See Creating a Custom AzureAD App for more information.

When authenticating using an Azure Service Principal, you must register an application with an Azure AD tenant. Follow the steps below to create a new service principal that can be used with the role-based access control.

Assign a role to the application

To access resources in your subscription, you must assign a role to the application.

Open the Subscriptions page by searching and selecting the Subscriptions service from the search bar.
Select the particular subscription to assign the application to.
Open the Access control (IAM) and select Add > Add role assignment to open the Add role assignment page.
Select Owner as the role to assign to your created Azure AD app.

Complete the Authentication

You are ready to connect after setting one of the below connection properties groups, depending on the configured app authentication (client secret or certificate).

In both methods

Before choosing client secret or certicate authentication, follow these steps then continue to the relevant section below:

AuthScheme: Set this to the AzureServicePrincipal in your app settings.
InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
AzureTenant: Set this to the tenant you wish to connect to.
OAuthClientId: Set this to the client Id in your app settings.

Authenticating using a Client Secret

Continue with the following:

OAuthClientId: Set this to the client Id in your app settings.
OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client secret in your app settings.

Authenticating using a Certificate

Continue with the following:

OAuthJWTCert: Set this to the JWT Certificate store.
OAuthJWTCertType: Set this to the type of the certificate store specified by OAuthJWTCert.

MSI

If you are running Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central on an Azure VM, you can leverage Managed Service Identity (MSI) credentials to connect:

AuthScheme: Set this to AzureMSI.

The MSI credentials are automatically obtained for authentication.