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/RaiserEdgeNXTODBCDriverforUnix.deb
On systems that support the RPM package format, run the following command with root or sudo:
rpm -ivh /path/to/driver/RaiserEdgeNXTODBCDriverforUnix.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-raiseredgenxt/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 BlackBaud Raiser's Edge NXT
Before establishing a connection, supply the SubscriptionKey, found in the BlackBaud Raiser's Edge NXT Profile.
Authenticating to BlackBaud Raiser's Edge NXT
BlackBaud Raiser's Edge NXT provides embedded OAuth credentials that simplify connection from a Desktop application or a Headless machine. To connect from a Web application, you must create a custom OAuth application, as described in Creating a Custom OAuth Application.To connect from all authentication flows, you must:
- set AuthScheme to OAuth
- set the SubscriptionKey to your Subscription Key
- enable BlackBaud Raiser's Edge NXT on an authorization account to retrieve results
The following subsections describe how to authenticate to BlackBaud Raiser's Edge NXT from all available OAuth flows. For information about how to create a custom OAuth application to connect via the Web, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application. For a complete list of connection string properties available in BlackBaud Raiser's Edge NXT, see Connection.
Desktop Applications
If you are connecting from a Desktop Application, you can either connect via the embedded OAuth application, or authenticate from the desktop via a custom OAuth application, which you configure and register at the BlackBaud Raiser's Edge NXT console. For further information, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application.
Before you connect, set these properties:
- Custom applications only:
- CallbackURL: The Redirect URL specified in your custom OAuth application settings.
- OAuthClientId: The Client Id specified in your custom OAuth application settings.
- OAuthClientSecret: The Client Secret specified in your custom OAuth 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 as follows:
- Extracts the access token from the callback URL.
- 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 must create and register a custom OAuth application with BlackBaud Raiser's Edge NXT. You can then use the driver to acquire and manage the OAuth token values. For information about how to create a custom OAuth application and set it up so that it connects properly to your BlackBaud Raiser's Edge NXT environment, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application.Get an OAuth Access Token
To obtain the OAuthAccessToken, set these properties:
- OAuthClientId: The Client Id specified in your custom OAuth application settings.
- OAuthClientSecret: The Client Secret specified in your custom OAuth application settings.
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 when you configured your custom OAuth application. If necessary, set the Permissions parameter to request custom permissions. The stored procedure returns the URL to the OAuth endpoint.
- Navigate to the URL that the stored procedure returned in Step 1. Log in to the custom OAuth application and authorize the web application. Once the application has been authenticated, the browser redirects you to the callback URL.
- Call the GetOAuthAccessToken stored procedure. Set AuthMode to WEB and 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 must authenticate on another device that has an internet browser.- Choose one of the following options:
- Option 1: Obtain the OAuthVerifier value as described in Obtain and Exchange a Verifier Code, below.
- Option 2: Install the driver on a machine with an Internet browser and transfer the OAuth authentication values after you authenticate through the usual browser-based flow, as described in Option 2: Transfer OAuth Settings, below.
- Then configure the driver to automatically refresh the access token on 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 BlackBaud Raiser's Edge NXT 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 specified in your custom OAuth application.
- OAuthClientSecret: Set to the client secret specified in your custom OAuth application.
- 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 must exchange the OAuth verifier code for OAuth refresh and access tokens.
On the headless machine, to obtain the OAuth authentication values, set these connection properties:
- InitiateOAuth: REFRESH.
- OAuthVerifier: The verifier code.
- OAuthSettingsLocation: Persist the encrypted OAuth authentication values to the specified location.
- Custom applications only:
- OAuthClientId: The Client Id specified in your custom OAuth application settings.
- OAuthClientSecret: The Client Secret specified in your custom OAuth application settings.
After the OAuth settings file is generated, you must re-set the following properties to connect:
- InitiateOAuth: REFRESH.
- OAuthSettingsLocation: The location containing the encrypted OAuth authentication values. Make sure this location gives read and write permissions to the driver to enable the automatic refreshing of the access token.
- Custom applications only:
- OAuthClientId: The client Id specified in your custom OAuth application settings.
- OAuthClientSecret: The client secret specified in your custom OAuth application settings.
Option 2: Transfer OAuth Settings
Before you can connect 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 location 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, then set the following connection properties to connect to data:
- InitiateOAuth: REFRESH.
- OAuthSettingsLocation: Set this to the location of your OAuth settings file. Make sure this location gives read and write permissions to the driver to enable the automatic refreshing of the access token.
- Custom applications only:
- OAuthClientId: The client Id specified in your custom OAuth application settings.
- OAuthClientSecret: The client secret specified in your custom OAuth application settings.
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 BlackBaud Raiser's Edge NXT, 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-raiseredgenxt/lib/cdata.odbc.raiseredgenxt.ini':
[Driver]
AnsiCodePage = 932