How to Set up a Salesforce ODBC driver on macOS

Salesforce ODBC driver on macOS Before configuring the driver, make sure you have the iODBC driver manager installed. For iODBC versions compatible with our Salesforce Driver, see the System Requirements documentation..

If you do not have a compatible version of iODBC installed, follow the steps in the Installing a Driver Manager for ODBC Drivers on macOS guide.

Salesforce ODBC Driver Installation Steps on macOS:

Download an evaluation copy of Simba’s Salesforce ODBC driver. Be sure to select the Mac (ODBC) for the platform. Depending on your use case, select either Desktop or Server from the client / Server drop-down list.

Extract the Simba_Salesforce_ODBC_MAC.zip archive that you just downloaded by double clicking on the .zip file.


Mount the disk image by double-clicking Simba Salesforce 2.0.dmg.


Run the installer by double-clicking Simba Salesforce 2.0.pkg. The installer guides you through the steps necessary to install the driver.

A license file was emailed to you when you downloaded the driver. Locate this file and save it to the /lib subfolder of your driver installation directory. (You must have administrator privileges to change the contents of this folder).

For example, if you installed the driver to the default location, copy the license file into the /Library/simba/salesforceodbc/lib folder.

To navigate to this /lib sub-folder of your driver installation directory, click on the finder folder and press Shift+Command+G.
In the folder search field, type the location of the folder and click Go. Then copy the license into the folder. Verify the driver version using Terminal. Open the Terminal app, under Applications/Utilities, and run the following command:


pkgutil --info com.simba.salesforceodbc/lib

1	pkgutil --info com.simba.salesforceodbc/lib





The driver is now installed on your system.

Configuring the Salesforce ODBC Driver on macOS:

For this blog we are using a graphical user interface, iODBC Administrator, to configure the driver.

If you are comfortable with using Terminal, you can configure the driver by following the documentation: https://www.simba.com/products/Salesforce/doc/ODBC_InstallGuide/mac/content/odbc/configuring/intro-online.htm

Note that adding a DSN through the iODBC Administrator may require editing permissions.
For this example, we will be adding a “USER DSN”; therefore, check permissions of your ~/Library/ODBC folder. Allow write permissions for this folder.

In Finder, in Applications/iODBC folder, Open iODBC Administrator.app

In ODBC Administrator, select “User DSN” and click Add.

Select Simba Salesforce ODBC Driver and click Finish.

Name the driver Simba Salesforce and add “Configuration Values” by clicking + symbol.

To connect to Salesforce, you must configure the Simba Salesforce ODBC Driver to use the authentication mechanism that matches your Salesforce access requirements. Check the authentication settings that your Salesforce setup requires and refer to the corresponding Salesforce ODBC documentation under the “Configuration Options” section.

For our example, we will use the following configurations:

UID=my_user_id PWD=my_password URL=login.salesforce.com MetadataLevel=FULL UseNumeric=1

1 2 3 4 5

UID=my_user_id PWD=my_password URL=login.salesforce.com MetadataLevel=FULL UseNumeric=1

Click OK twice.
As mentioned previously, if iODBC Administrator does not work at this step, make sure you allow write permissions for the ~/Library/ODBC folder.

Testing your Simba Salesforce driver using an iODBC Test Application.

This is a quick test to make sure the driver is working properly for you.

In Finder, in Applications/iODBC folder. Open iODBC Test.command.

Type ? and press Enter to list all the available DSN names.

Confirm that the new DSN, Simba Salesforce, is on the list.

In the application, Type DSN=Simba Salesforce and press Enter.

To test a simple select statement, type Select Top 3 * from Account and press Enter.

Confirm that three rows have been retrieved.
You have now successfully set up your driver.