Note: There is an updated version of this article, which applies to the next generation of TimeXtender.

Since the 18.6.1 release it has been possible to use all available ADO.Net versions of CData.

They provide the ability to access a wide array of different data sources. Some of the data sources are already available as a normal adapter, so you may choose to use those instead.

Note:  Due to the product name change, starting with TimeXtender 20.5.* , new folder paths are created after upgrade.  As a result, existing CData providers are not detected from previous install on the same machine.  Review this article on how to fix it.

Specific CData provider setup

Here are the links to the specific CData setup guides. You will need to go through the Initial setup before you attempt to go through these.

• Connect to XML
• Connect to JSON
• Connect to PostgreSQL
• Connect to Google Analytics
• Connect to Dynamics CRM
• Connect to Dynamice 365 Sales
• Connect to CSV
• Connect to REST

If the CData provider doesn't have a guide here, a good start is to click the ? button. This will show you CData's own setup guide.

Initial setup

Add the first provider

You can add a CData data source by right clicking on the data sources and choosing Add CData Data Source.

The first time you do this you will be presented with this menu.

After you click on Yes you will get this menu. Here you can see the providers you have installed.

When you press Add.. you will be presented with the list of CData providers. You can choose multiple providers at once.

Following this you can add these as a CData data source. The available providers can be seen in the providers drop-down menu.

Add more providers

If you want to add more CData providers following the first attempt you can open the Manage CData Providers menu here.

If there is new versions of a provider you will be able to upgrade it here. The status will be Needs to be Updated and the Update button wont be grayed out.

Add a old version of a provider

You can also choose to not update it and add the same provider again, but in another edition. This makes the change from one edition to the other easier, as you can copy the connection string in the old version, change the edition to the new one and add the connection string to that. If there is no issues following this, you can delete the old edition in the Manage CData Providers menu.

If you for some reason need an older version of a CData connector than the one you have, we now provide this possiblity.

Then you can choose an specific edition when adding a data source.

General options available for all providers

Default data type value lengths

There are some general options that are shared across the various providers. These are things you can do for all providers if you need the benefit of these settings.

In the other field, you can state some hidden options. Some of these are the following:

DefaultColumnSize

DefaultDecimalPrecision

DefaultDecimalScale

DefaultTimestampScale

If you set them up in the field it is done as follows.

After a synchronize it will increase the default string size from 2000 to 4000.

Reset field

If you want to stop using a field or make it use the default value, you should not just delete the content, but instead right click in the name area of the field and click on the Reset option. This will remove or reset the content, whereas if you just deleted it it could still be using a blank value in the field.

Set up a log for extra info

Sometimes you want to get some more info out of what is going on. This is good for troubleshooting while testing a new setup.

What you do is to locate the logging area and find the logfile field. You click on the icon with the three dots and finds a location to store the log in. Then you type in the name and the file type and clicks Open. Finally you set the verbosity to a number between 1 and 5.

Regarding verbosity levels. It will give more information the higher the number. You should generally use 3. Higher only if you know the response will be small. Once your log file becomes larger than 100MB it will split out into sub log files with a _1 enummeration for each new one.

You should not use this log for normal executions, but turn it on for trouble shooting only.