Create Act CRM-Connected Visualizations in Klipfolio

Klipfolio is an online dashboard platform designed to create real-time business dashboards, whether for your team or clients. When combined with CData Connect AI, you gain immediate cloud-to-cloud access to Act CRM data to create visualizations, reports, and more. This article provides step-by-step instructions on connecting to Act CRM within Connect AI and creating visualizations using Act CRM data in Klipfolio.

CData Connect AI offers a direct cloud-to-cloud interface for Act CRM, enabling you to construct reports from real-time Act CRM data data within Klipfolio—without the need for data replication to a database natively supported by Klipfolio. While building visualizations, Klipfolio generates SQL queries to fetch data. With optimized data processing capabilities out of the box, CData Connect AI efficiently directs all supported SQL operations (such as filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to Act CRM, harnessing server-side processing to swiftly retrieve the requested Act CRM data data.

Configure Act CRM Connectivity for Klipfolio

Connectivity to Act CRM from Klipfolio is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Act CRM data from Klipfolio, we start by creating and configuring a Act CRM connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection

2. Select "Act CRM" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Act CRM.

   The and properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid Act! user credentials. In addition to the authentication values, see the following:

   • Connecting to Act! Premium

     In addition to the authentication values, the to Act! is also required; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/.

     Additionally, you must specify the you will connect to. This is found by going to the About Act! Premium menu of your account, at the top right of the page, in the ? menu. Use the Database Name in the window that appears.

   • Connecting to Act! Premium Cloud

     To connect to your Act! Premium Cloud account, you also need to specify the property. This property is found in the URL address of the Cloud account; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/ActCloudName/.

   Note that retrieving ActCRM metadata can be expensive. It is advised that you set the property to store the metadata locally.

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Act CRM Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
   
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Act CRM data from Klipfolio.

Connect to Act CRM from Klipfolio

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Klipfolio to create a new Act CRM data source.

1. Open Klipfolio
2. Click in Data Sources to add a new data source
3. Search for and select MSSQL as the Service 👁 Adding a new datasource.
   
4. Click "Create a custom MSSQL data source"
5. Configure the data source by setting the MSSQL connection properties:
   • Host: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: 14333
   • Database: your database (e.g., ActCRM1)
   • Driver: MS SQL
   • Username: a Connect AI user (e.g. [email protected])
   • Password: the above user's PAT
   • SQL Query: any query to retrieve data (e.g. SELECT * FROM Activities )
   • Select the checkbox to "Include column headers"
   • Select the checkbox to "Use SSL/TLS"
   👁 Configuring the connection to Connect AI.
   
6. Click "Get data" to preview the Act CRM data before building a data model.

Build a Data Model

After retrieving the data, click the checkbox to "Model your data" and click "Continue." In the new window, configure your data model.

1. Confirm that the model includes all columns you wish to work with
2. Name your model
3. (optional) Set the Description
4. Set "Header in row" to 1
5. Click the toggle to "Exclude data before row" and set the value to 2
6. Click "Save and Exit" 👁 Configuring the data model.
   

Create a Metric

With the data modeled, we are ready to create a Metric (or visualization) of the data to be used in the Klipfolio platform for dashboards, reporting, and more.

1. Click "Create metrics"
2. Select a Data source
3. Select a Metric value and default aggregation
4. Select Segmentation(s)
5. Select a Date & time
6. Select a Data shape
7. Configure the Display settings
8. Click Save 👁 Configuring a Metric
   
9. Navigate to your Metric and further configure the visualization 👁 A configured Metric
   

SQL Access to Act CRM Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a Metric built from live Act CRM data. You can add it to a new dashboard, share, and more. Easily create more data sources and new visualizations, produce reports, and more — all without replicating Act CRM data.

To get SQL data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, try CData Connect AI.