Establishing a Connection

Configure a Connection Profile

From the CData ribbon, click Get Data and select From BigCommerce connection/s to launch the CData Query window. To setup a new connection, you will have to click the New BigCommerce Connection button. Here you can set the connection settings, test the connection, and save the connection profile.

Connecting to BigCommerce

BigCommerce authentication is based on the standard OAuth flow.

Obtain the Store ID

In order to connect to your BigCommerce Store, you will need your StoreId. To find your Store Id please follow these steps:

Log in to your BigCommerce account.
From the Home Page, select Advanced Settings > API Accounts.
Click Create API Account > Create V2/V3 API Token.
A text box named API Path appears on your screen.
Inside you can see a URL with the following structure: https://api.bigcommerce.com/stores/{Store Id}/v3.
As demonstrated above, your Store Id is located between the 'stores/' and '/v3' path paramters.
Once you have retrieved your Store Id you can either click Cancel or proceed to creating an API Account if you do not have one.

Obtain a Personal Access Token

Additionally, you must obtain a personal token to test and to access your own data. To obtain the personal token, follow the steps below:

Log in to your BigCommerce account.
From the Home Page, select Advanced Settings > API Accounts.
Click Create API Account > Create V2/V3 API Token.
Enter the name of your account.
Choose the OAuth Scopes for the API Account you are creating. The add-in cannot access data marked as "None" and cannot modify data marked as "read-only".
Click Save.

Authenticating to BigCommerce

There are two ways to authenticate to BigCommerce:

Using OAuthAccess tokens generated from the BigCommerce User Interface (UI)
Using OAuth credentials created by a custom BigCommerce application

Big Commerce UI

Generating an OAuthAccess Token from BigCommerce describes how to obtain the credentials to connect to BigCommerce. The access token authorizes specific account information to be shared. In this flow, there is no web browser required during execution because you explicitly create and accept permissions for your application directly in the BigCommerce UI. This is the easiest way to connect and is recommended for users who are just accessing their personal or company data.

Generating an Access Token

To obtain an OAuthAccessToken directly from your BigCommerce account's UI:

Log in to your BigCommerce account.
From the Home Page, select Advanced Settings > API Accounts.
Selectc Create API Account > Create V2/V3 API Token.
Enter the name of your account.
Choose the OAuth Scopes for the API Account you are creating. The driver cannot access data marked as "None" and cannot modify data marked as "read-only".
Click Save.

Your newly created app's Access Token, and Store Id are displayed on the screen. Make sure to copy them, since this is the only time you have access to these credentials. You can now use these credentials to connect to BigCommerce by setting the following connection properties:

AuthScheme: Personal access token
StoreId: Set this to your StoreId. For additional information on how to find your BigCommerce's Store Id, please see Establishing a Connection.
OAuthAccessToken: Access token

For additional information on how to find your BigCommerce's Store Id, please see Establishing a Connection.

BigCommerce Custom App

Creating a BigCommerce App describes how to create a custom app to connect to BigCommerce. This method details how to create an application for distribution and is required for each of the following sections:

Desktop applications
Web applications
Headless machines

Note that in all these cases, you must set the AuthScheme to OAuth. The following sections assume that you have done so.

Creating an app is more complicated than generating a single OAuthAccess Token, but may be more desireable for client integrations where your design is to connect or allow access to multiple clients, or an administrative scenario where the admin creates an app to be authorized individually by multiple individual users.

Desktop Apps

Follow the steps below to authenticate with the credentials for a custom OAuth app. See "Generating an Access Token" above for more information.

Get an OAuth Access Token

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

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 Redirect URL in your app settings.
StoreId: Set this to your StoreId. For additional information on how to find your BigCommerce's Store Id, please see Establishing a Connection. .

When you connect the add-in opens the OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application.

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 add-in 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 add-in 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 BigCommerce 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 add-in. 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 location of 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 location containing the encrypted OAuth authentication values. Make sure this location grants read and write permissions to the add-in 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 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.

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 location of your OAuth settings file. Make sure this location gives read and write permissions to the add-in to enable the automatic refreshing of the access token.

Connection Properties

The Connection properties describe the various options that can be used to establish a connection.

Managing Connections

After successfully authenticating to BigCommerce you will be able to customize the data you are importing. To learn more about this, see Managing Connections.

Excel Add-In for BigCommerce