Guides: Building a Business Central Source Connector

[KevinConseilxyz]

Hi Everyone,

Intro

This guide is starting a discussion on how to create a Business Central Source Connector on the Airbyte Builder and is supposed to be enriched, edited & transformed by anyone!

What is written below is the start of the discussion and if you find a better way to setup this connector then please share your method :)

Before Step 1

Prior to any further steps you need to register your Business Central "App" on Azure in order to generate a Client ID and Client Secret. Please follow the steps in this wiki: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/identity-platform/quickstart-register-app#add-credentials

Step 1

Airbyte Builder

• Click on + New Custom Connector

Step 2

Global Configuration

• API Base URL: https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v2.0/[YOUR_DIRECTORY_ID]/Production/api/. [YOUR_DIRECTORY_ID] -> Find it on Azure: APP Registration > Overview, also in your URL when you use Business central on the browser
• Method: OAuth
• Token Refresh Endpoint: https://login.windows.net/[YOUR_DIRECTORY_ID]/oauth2/token?resource=https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com
• Grant Type: refresh_token

Step 3

User Inputs

• Start Date
• Client ID
• Client Secret
• Refresh Token

Step 4

Testing Values

• Start Date: I put the date of the first order
• Client ID: Find it on Azure: APP Registration > Certificates & secrets
• Client Secret: Find it on Azure: APP Registration > Certificates & secrets
• Refresh Token: Use Postman to generate the refresh_token and then paste it here

Step 5

Streams

1. Click on + in the streams header
2. Stream structure: I create one stream per table (e.g. "Customer" stream to ingest data from the "Customer" card to my "Customer" table) because all streams share the same "Global Configuration" and it is easier to maintain.
3. Standard API: Business Central has several tables (Customer, Item, Posted Sales Invoice, Sales Order, ect.) available through their Standard API.
   3.1. URL Path: v2.0/companies([YOUR_COMPANY_ID])/[YOUR_TABLE_NAME].
   3.2. [YOUR_COMPANY_ID]: You can find it by running this GET request on Postman https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v2.0/[YOUR_DIRECTORY_ID]/Production/api/v2.0/companies
   3.3. [YOUR_TABLE_NAME]: Name of the standard API name, such as "items", "locations", "itemCategories", ect.
   3.4. Record Selector: value
   3.5. Primary Key: id
   3.6. HTTP Method: GET
4. Custom API: You can create custom Business Central APIs in order to make your custom tables accessible
   4.1. Wiki: Develop Custom API
   4.1. URL Path: [YOUR_APIPUBLISHER]/[YOUR_APIGROUP]/[YOUR_APIVERSION]/companies([YOUR_COMPANY_ID])/[YOUR_ENTITY_NAME]
   4.2. [YOUR_COMPANY_ID]: You can find it by running this GET request on Postman https://api.businesscentral.dynamics.com/v2.0/[YOUR_DIRECTORY_ID]/Production/api/v2.0/companies
   4.3. [YOUR_ENTITY_NAME]: You define it when building your custom API
   4.4. Record Selector: value
   4.5. Primary Key: systemId
   4.6. HTTP Method: GET
   4.7. [YOUR_APIPUBLISHER]: You define it when building your custom API
   4.8. [YOUR_APIGROUP] : You define it when building your custom API
   4.9. [YOUR_APIVERSION]: You define it when building your custom API

Next steps

Here we setup a basic full refresh connector which read only a limited amount of records. Next we should discuss how to implement in the order:

1. Pagination
2. Incremental refresh
3. Error handler

All the best and happy coding!