Reputation: 1726

How do I access netsuite data using SQL language

A company uses netsuites to make purchase orders and store sales information. The only way this company is able to access this information at the moment is through building netsuites reports

Is there a way SQL language could be written to access the netsuites data as some of the questions asked by the business need something a bit more complex than what netsuites reporting provides - and sound very easy using SQL language

I have experience in Oracle, mysql, and many other SQL languages so I would like to know how to set up a connection to the companies netsuites data so I can help write custom queries

Upvotes: 9

Answers (9)

Saxman

Reputation: 231

As previously mentioned, if you have it licensed you can download the ODBC driver from the Netsuite application. I tested some other adapters but found Netsuite's at least as good as the competitors and they provide timely security updates to the drivers as well as both 64 and 32 bit versions.

There are also metadata browsers that are on the net (example is URL below), the type of browser being based on which kind of access you are looking at (web services, verses ODBC, etc). https://system.sandbox.netsuite.com/help/helpcenter/en_US/srbrowser/Browser2017_2/odbc/record/account.html

Within the application GUI there is information you need to connect using their ODBC connection (you need the account id and the role id). The URL is just odbcserver.xxxx.netsuite.com where xxx is specific to your environment you are accessing. Note that other adapters such as Cozyroc, etc. require the admin to setup connections in Netsuite for those. Here is a list of the main metadata tables:

OA_FKEYS
OA_TABLES
OA_COLUMNS

In addition, note that the URL above does NOT include customization. Plus its not easily consumed by automation tools. But Netsuite provides a set of metadata views within the repository which you can use ODBC to pull from which includes all keys - foreign and primary. AND it does include customizations! I built simple set of ETL jobs that use standard ADO.NET driver within SSIS and the ODBC DSN to pull all the metadata and then use BIML to automatically generate all the extract ETL and related staging tables. You can also easily then use the metadata to detect changes in the underlying database.

Let me know if I can be any help with doing any of this.

Upvotes: 2

Saxman

Reputation: 231

You can access Netsuite backend using a number of different tools and it allows running Oracle SQL directly.

Netsuite provides JDBC, ADO.NET and ODBC if it was included in your licensing purchase. You can find the downloads from the main menu - lower left hand of the screen in Settings - Set Up SuiteAnalytics Connect.

ADO.net however is pretty worthless in SSIS as it doesn't allow parameter mapping or SQL from a variable value. I have yet to get the ODBC driver to work correctly - it can connect and show columns of a table but it won't validate saying "The ODBC Source.Outputs[ODBC Source Error Output].Columns[...] on the error output has properties that do not match the properties of its corresponding data source column."

The other options I'm looking into are Cozyroc and Kinsgwaysoft adapters for Netsuite. You could also do SOAP or REST connections if desired.

Upvotes: 4

adamc

Reputation: 1

Download the Netsuite ODBC drivers, set up your DSN locally with server/credentials, Use SSIS pkgs to automate data extract and load onto you local DB. Use ADO.NET drivers if preferred. Then utilize those tables to create/deliver your complex reports using SQL (stored procedures) and Reporting Services. This will require SQL Standard license at minimum though.

Upvotes: -1

Bill Border

Reputation: 1

There are 3rd party tools, like CData ODBC Adapter for NetSuite: http://www.cdata.com/drivers/netsuite/odbc/ . This tool allows you to run standard SQL against the NetSuite API. Note that the NetSuite API presents a very different data model from that of the native NetSuite ODBC.

With this tool, you install in onto your machine (Win in my case) and then after you configure the driver, you can run SQL against it (the driver config is where you specify your NS credentials, etc.).

It revolutionizes access to NetSuite data IMHO.

Upvotes: 0

Grant Taylor

Reputation: 1

You can't access to Netsuite data using sql language.

The only way to gain access to Netsuite from third party systems is to use SOAP request or PHP toolkit.

Upvotes: -11

jchemp

Reputation: 319

Netsuite has SuiteAnalytics Connect, which is ODBC. It can be downloaded from a link at the very bottom the home screen of your Netsuite account.

After installation of the application bundle and connecting it to your Netsuite, you can write ORACLE SQL queries via Excel, Access, etc. My experience is that Netsuite uses Oracle SQL in ODBC queries and in Saved Search custom queries.

Upvotes: 13

Jo O

Reputation: 79

The way I understand it, the ODBC driver is a separately priced item from NetSuite. Once you have that, you could use Excel, Access, Crystal Reports or anything else that can use the ODBC driver to read the data and write queries against it.

The normal way to access NetSuite data is with SuiteScript -- javascript code that uses the nlapi* calls to get to the data.

Upvotes: 7