SData is part of / for a different Sage 50.   It is not part of the Canadian (used to be Simply Accounting) software.

To interchange data with the Sage 50 software, you can use:

 - Data import / Export.  (it's a sort of comma-delimited format)

 - ODBC for direct access to read and write most data at a table level.

 - The SDK. (Software Development Kit)

thank you RandyW.

what approach would you recommend if I need to read/write invoices and customer records from Java application into Sage 50?

Hi Dmitriy,

You could:

1. use the (free) .NET SDK and interact with the software at sort of the same level as entering data through the interface, or

2. use the direct data manipulation functions of the SDK to open the database and read/write invoices and customer raw table data, or

3. make an ODBC connection to an already open database, and read/write invoice and customer table data directly from the database.

4. Use a keyboarding utility such as 'AutoHotKey' to send keystrokes through the program interface, and read the contents of fields on the screen.

Considerations:

If using 2. or 3., While there are some primary and compound keys that prevent duplicate entries within a table, data integrity between tables is not enforced by the database.

(in some cases it is also not necessary.  Sage allows 'clearing' of past transaction data such as invoice descriptions on paid invoices, or inventory transaction detail, while retaining the journal entry financial data.  If no-one will ever need certain data such as invoice descriptions that are the default inventory item descriptions, it may not be necessary to record the detail, in the first place).

The Sage 50 SDK has no API for printing or processing payments.  If you need to do that, you will pretty much have to reverse-engineer the table entries required, using 2. or 3.

Notes:

Sage 50 uses a customized version of MySQL.  Configuring the MySQL database to do SQL transaction logging while entering data through the interface may help in understanding how the details of how the 'back end' works.

Disclaimer:

I do not work for Sage.   Any posts in this forum are a sharing of knowledge, rather than a recommendation of some specific action on the part of the reader.  There is no guarantee or implied contract of any kind.   Nothing in this forum should be considered by you to be permission to take any action that is a violation of any software or copyright license.  

thanks again Randy.