Welcome to our guide on “Integrating Zoho CRM Data to SQL Server”. This blog post will provide a comprehensive walkthrough on how to establish a linked server connection between Zoho CRM and SQL Server. Understanding and implementing this integration is crucial as it allows for seamless data exchange, improved data management, and enhanced business intelligence capabilities, thereby optimizing your business operations. Stay tuned as we delve into the step-by-step process of this important integration.
Mastering the Essentials
The SQL Gateway is a powerful tool that allows for the creation of a TDS (Tabular Data Stream) remoting service, which in turn enables the setup of a linked server for Zoho CRM data. It essentially acts as a bridge between your SQL Server and Zoho CRM, facilitating seamless data communication.
The ODBC Driver, on the other hand, is a standardized API that allows applications to access database management systems (DBMS). In the context of Zoho CRM, it is used to specify connection properties to the CRM data.
The TDS remoting service plays a pivotal role in this setup. It is a daemon process that listens for TDS requests from clients. Once you’ve started the service, you can use the UI in SQL Server Management Studio or call stored procedures to create the linked server. This service is integral to the functioning of the SQL Gateway, enabling it to handle and process data requests efficiently.
Understanding these components is crucial to successfully integrating Zoho CRM data with SQL Server.
How to Install and Set Up ODBC driver for Zoho CRM
- Download and Install the Driver
- Download the installer executive file.
- Run the installer and follow the instructions in the wizard.
- If a warning appears due to an existing installation folder or another driver version, choose to overwrite the old files. However, it’s recommended to uninstall the previous driver version first.
- On the ‘Select Components’ page, choose whether to install the 64-bit version of the driver. Uncheck the box if you don’t need a 64-bit installation. You can also choose to install Help and Manual here.
- In the ‘License Information’ dialog box, select the license type and activate the product. If you don’t have an activation key, select ‘Trial’.
- If you have an activation key, select the ‘Activation Key’ option and paste it into the ‘Activation Key’ edit box.
- If you have the activation key file, click the ‘Load Activation Key’ button and browse to it.
- Click ‘Next’, then ‘Install’, and finally ‘Finish’.
- After the installation is completed, you need to configure the driver.
- Configure the Driver (Windows DSN Configuration)
- Open the ODBC Data Source Administrator. You can search for ‘ODBC Data Sources’ in the Windows search box and choose the application that matches the bitness of the third-party application (32-bit or 64-bit). Alternatively, you can run ‘C:WindowsSysWOW64odbcad32.exe’ for a 32-bit DSN or ‘C:WindowsSystem32odbcad32.exe’ for a 64-bit DSN.
- Select the ‘User DSN’ or ‘System DSN’ tab.
- Click ‘Add’. The ‘Create New Data Source’ dialog will appear.
- Select ‘Devart ODBC Driver for Zoho CRM’ and click ‘Finish’. The driver setup dialog will open.
- Choose the needed Domain and click ‘Sign In with Zoho’.
- In the ‘Web Login’ dialog box, enter your Zoho account credentials and click ‘Sign in’.
- Allow the driver access to your data in Zoho.
- A refresh token will be automatically generated and inserted.
- Test the connectivity by clicking ‘Test Connection’.
- Click ‘OK’ to save the DSN.
This guide will help you install the driver and configure it for Zoho CRM in the ODBC Data Source Administrator.
Guide to Configuring a SQL Server Linked Server for Zoho CRM Integration
Discover how to seamlessly integrate Zoho CRM with SQL Server through our concise, step-by-step configuration guide.
- Launch SQL Server Management Studio
- Start your SQL Server Management Studio and connect to your SQL Server instance.
- Access Linked Servers
- In the Object Explorer pane, navigate to Server Objects.
- Right-click on ‘Linked Servers’ and then select ‘New Linked Server’.
- Configure Linked Server
- In the dialog box that appears, enter a name for your server in the ‘Linked server’ field.
- Under ‘Server type’, select ‘Other data source’.
- Choose ‘Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers’ from the ‘Provider’ drop-down list.
- In the ‘Data source’ field, enter the name of your DSN, for example, ‘Devart ODBC Driver for Zoho CRM’. Alternatively, you can input the ODBC Driver connection string in the ‘Provider’ field.
- Enable Inprocess Option
- Find the ‘MSDASQL’ provider in the list of Linked Servers and double-click on it.
- In the ‘Provider Options’ window that appears, enable the ‘Allow inprocess’ checkbox.
- Create a New Linked Server
- Make sure to select ‘Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers’.
- Input the Linked Server name, for example, ‘ZOHO’. In the ‘Product Name’ and ‘Data Source’ fields, indicate the System DSN that you’ve previously created.
- Query the Linked Server
- The Zoho CRM tables are now available to be fetched. To query the linked server, click ‘New Query’ in the toolbar.
- Enter your SQL query in the editor window and click ‘Execute’ to run the query.
By following these steps, you can configure a SQL Server Linked Server to connect to Zoho CRM and retrieve data directly from your Zoho CRM account.
Executing Queries
Once you’ve established the linked server connection, you can start querying Zoho CRM data directly from your SQL Server environment. Here’s how you can do it:
- Open SQL Server Management Studio
- Launch SQL Server Management Studio and connect to your SQL Server instance.
- Initiate a New Query
- Click on ‘New Query’ in the toolbar.
- Enter Your Query
- In the query editor window, you can write SQL queries to fetch data from Zoho CRM. For instance, if you want to fetch all records from the ‘Accounts’ table, you can use the following SQL command:
SELECT * FROM [Your Linked Server Name].[CData ZohoCRM Sys].[ZohoCRM].[Accounts] |
- Execute the Query
- Click ‘Execute’ to run the query.
The results of your query will be displayed in the ‘Results’ pane. This way, you can interact with your Zoho CRM data directly from SQL Server, allowing for more efficient data analysis and management.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we’ve walked through the comprehensive process of integrating Zoho CRM with SQL Server, from understanding the basics of SQL Gateway and ODBC Driver, to configuring the TDS remoting service, and finally executing queries on the linked server. This integration brings numerous benefits, including seamless data exchange, improved data management, and enhanced business intelligence capabilities. By linking Zoho CRM to SQL Server, you can leverage the power of SQL queries for your CRM data, enabling more efficient data analysis and decision-making processes. This integration truly bridges the gap between your CRM and database management system, unlocking new possibilities for data-driven insights.