Access an Oracle database securely from Salesforce using OData

Integrating external data with Salesforce applications has never been easier thanks to Salesforce Connect that can help you consume data from any OData producer. External data objects can be configured in minutes. But the picture isn't complete without the real-time connectivity provided by our Hybrid Connectivity Service - DataDirect Hybrid Data Pipeline. 

In this tutorial we will walk you through on how you can an Oracle database securely using OData generated by Hybrid Data Pipeline. 

You can find complete documentation for installing Hybrid Data Pipeline here: 

https://docs.progress.com/bundle/datadirect-hybrid-data-pipeline-installation-46/page/Installing-the-Hybrid-Data-Pipeline-server.html 

Note that since Salesforce requires OData endpoints to have publicly trusted SSL certificates, be sure to perform a “Custom” installation and provide the PEM file which contains the full chain of your SSL cert. Documentation for this can be found here: 

https://docs.progress.com/bundle/datadirect-hybrid-data-pipeline-installation-46/page/The-PEM-file.html 

Once you have installed Progress Hybrid Data Pipeline and are able to access it over HTTPS, proceed to configuring the connection to Oracle below.  

Note that this HTTPS endpoint will need to be reachable from Salesforce, so this is a good time to make any required firewall changes. You may also want to configure a DNS entry to point to your HDP instance. 

1. Open your browser and go to go to https://<server_name> and you should see a login page as shown below. Depending on how you installed, you may need to add :8443 to your URL. 

2. Log in with the admin credentials you created during installation. This is usually the d2cadmin user account. Then click on the data sources icon and then click “New Data Source.” 

3. You should see a list of available data sources. Choose Oracle to begin configuring the connection to your database. 

4. Configure the data source to connect to your Oracle instance by providing a Data Source Name, Database User ID, Password, Server Name, Port, and SID. Click Test to validate. See the sample below: 

5. Once you are connected to your data source, choose the OData tab at the top of the screen. Here you will map the tables and columns to an OData schema, creating your REST endpoint. Choose OData v4 and click Configure.  

6. On the configuration page, select the database schema which contains your tables and then choose which tables and columns you would like to attach to your OData endpoint. Once you have added them, click on Save Map. When back at the data source page, click Update to apply the changes and sync the map with the data source. 

7. On the data source screen, click the link icon. This will open a new browser window with the OData endpoint. Save this URL, as it is this URL you will use when configuring Salesforce Connect. The credentials will be your Hybrid Data Pipeline username and password. The page which opens returns a JSON document from your new OData endpoint. 

8. Log into your Salesforce instance and go into the Setup and select External Data Sources. On the next screen, click New External Data Source. 

9. Enter the required information to configure your external data source. This includes a data source name, the type of connection (OData 4.0), the URL copied from Hybrid Data Pipeline in step 7, clicking to make the source writable (if desired), and credentials to your Hybrid Data Pipeline instance. Click Save when complete.

10. On the next screen, click Validate and Sync. 

11. On the next screen, select the table from the Oracle database you would like synced to Salesforce. In our example, I am selecting the Employees table. Once you complete your selection(s), click Sync. 

Once the sync is completed, you will see the external objects listed at the bottom of the page. Now, you can access this data from within Salesforce.  

12. To easily view the external data in Salesforce, you can create a Tab. To do this, under Setup in Salesforce, select Tabs. Click New under Custom Object Tabs. 

13. Select the Object you would like to show with the tab, choose a Tab Style, and click Next. 

14. On the next screen (step 2) scroll to the bottom of the page and click Next. On step 3, click Save. 

15.  Return to the main page in your Salesforce environment and you should see the object name included as one of the tabs across the top of the page. In my example, Employees is listed as one of the tabs. 

16.  Click Employees and change the selection to include All. 

17. Your external data should populate on the following screen.