Database Sync and Merge
Database Sync requires the plus version of Sonoran CAD or higher. Database Merge requires the pro version of Sonoran CAD.
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Database Sync is a highly advanced feature allowing you to automatically pull all character, license, and vehicle registration data from your own in-game database directly to Sonoran CAD.
View our video tutorial on enabling Database Sync.
Configuring Sonoran CAD's Database Sync may seem complicated, but you are simply specifying your table names and column values where your in-game data is stored.
REQUIRED fields in the CAD are shown in red. All other fields are optional and are not required to work properly.
In order for Sonoran CAD to connect to your SQL database, connection credentials must be configured properly.
Sonoran CAD requires an external connection to your database.
View our guide on creating a new read-only SQL user for external use.
Expand the SQL Connection Credentials section of the configuration, and toggle on Database Sync and the optional Database Merge feature.
Database Merge is an additional feature that allows you to save off additional, manually specified data in the CAD.
Example:
DB Merge pulls a character record into the CAD, but the address field in your custom record is blank (your DB doesn't have this info). DB merge allows you to manually edit the record pulled from your database and edit any blank field.
Next time you look up this character, it will pull the same character info from your database and then merge this with the manually specified data saved in Sonoran CAD.
Field | Description |
Type | This is the type of SQL database your server is using (MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.) |
Host/Address | This is the external IP address or domain address to your SQL database. Note: This IP will never be |
Port | This is the port your database is accessible from. Typically, the default port for MySQL is 3306. |
Database | This is the database or schema name that contains your community’s character, license and vehicle registration tables. |
Username | This is the SQL account username. |
Password | This is the password for the SQL account. |
Once the required SQL connection fields have been specified, select the “Test Connection” button. This will query your database for the version. If you see an alert similar to the following, your connection is successful:
If you see an error message, it's likely you have not properly setup your new SQL user's credentials or opened the database port for external use.
Sonoran CAD requires character mapping to be properly configured for the additional license and vehicle registration mapping.
The DB sync configuration is designed to show Sonoran CAD the specific tables and columns that data can be pulled from in your database.
The table name field will contain the name of your database table containing character records.
The column name field will contain the name of the specific column in the character records table containing data for this row.
The Character Mapping Column contains a unique ID for the specific character. This unique identifier will also map records in your license and vehicle registration tables back to the character that owns them. Typically, this is a Steam ID or license ID.
Character records can also pull data from multiple different tables, such as a properties table to add address information. Just be sure that those additional tables have a proper identifier column to map back to the other characters table.
Example:
In our database, the characters table contains our character records. The identifier column contains the character's unique ID, the firstname column contains the characters first name, the lastname character contains the characters last name, etc.
Be sure that you have enabled character mapping via the toggle. Once your character mapping has been completed, hit the save button and then the test button. The test button will attempt to select a single random character with the mapping configuration specified.
If you see "Success!" move onto the next section.
Licenses and Vehicle registrations can also be automatically pulled via CAD search with Database Sync.
Similar to the character mapping, specify the table name containing your vehicle registrations or licenses. Unlike character mapping, data for these records can only be pulled from a single table.
The vehicle and license mapping will also need to have the Character Mapping Column specified. Again, this is the name of the column in your license/vehicle table containing a unique ID that maps back to the character that owns it.
Example:
In our database, the owned_vehicles table contains our stored vehicles. The owner column contains the character's unique ID that owns the vehicle, and the plate column contains the vehicle's license plate.
Be sure that you have enabled the license/vehicle mapping via the toggle. Once your mapping has been completed, hit the save button and then the test button. The test button will attempt to select a single random license or vehicle with the mapping configuration specified.
If you see "Success!" move onto the next section.
Many databases store data in a JSON formatted column. Sonoran CAD can also parse these columns for data.
In our database, the accounts column stores JSON formatted data. For this example, we want to display the bank money in the custom character record.
To more easily view the JSON data, we can copy it from the cell and paste it into a JSON formatter.
In the JSON formatter, we can paste it and select Format.
We can see that the JSON "key" for the bank account amount is bank.
Back in the mapping panel, we toggle the field as a JSON Column and set the column name to accounts as this is the column in our character table that contains the JSON data.
We can then set the JSON Key for this data as bank.
Friendly mapping allows you to convert any raw database value to a more user friendly value.
Ex: drive_license in your database is converted to Driver's License.
In our SQL table, we can see the character's job columns has text values that can be improved. The taxi job value can be automatically converted to Taxi Driver in DB Sync records, and the cardealer jon can be automatically converted to Car Dealer.
In our character table mapping, we can select Modify on the job field's friendly mapping.
In the editor, we can now map the raw database value of taxi to a friendly value of Taxi Driver and the raw db value of cardealer to Car Dealer.
Be sure to hit save in the friendly mapping editor, and then save the configuration for your mapping section.
These new friendly mapped values will even work with custom search types!
Sonoran CAD's records are entirely customizable, this includes database sync records! You can easily enable database sync mapping for any custom field you add to a character, license, or vehicle registration record.
Navigate to Admin > Customization > Custom Records
Select your custom character, license, or vehicle registration record to open the editor.
Simply check the box to enable database sync mapping for any new or existing field. For this example, we'll enable it for a new job field in our character's table.
Be sure to save your custom record format after enabling this!
Back in our database sync editor, we can now see the new Job field has been added. We can map this new field to our database as any other field.
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