Create Reports from Blackbaud FE NXT Data in Looker Studio

Looker Studio, formerly known as Google Data Studio, empowers users to craft customized reports featuring data visualizations that can be shared with clients while reflecting your brand identity. When combined with CData Connect AI, you gain immediate cloud-to-cloud access to Blackbaud FE NXT data to create visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article provides step-by-step instructions on establishing a virtual database for Blackbaud FE NXT and generating reports from Blackbaud FE NXT data within Looker Studio.

CData Connect AI offers a seamless cloud-to-cloud interface tailored for Blackbaud FE NXT, making it straightforward to construct reports directly from live Blackbaud FE NXT data within Looker Studio without the need for data replication. As you create visualizations, Looker Studio generates queries to retrieve data. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect AI efficiently channels all supported query operations, including filters, JOINs, and more, directly to Blackbaud FE NXT. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly provide the requested Blackbaud FE NXT data.

Configure Blackbaud FE NXT Connectivity for Looker Studio

Connectivity to Blackbaud FE NXT from Looker Studio is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Blackbaud FE NXT data from Looker Studio, we start by creating and configuring a Blackbaud FE NXT connection.

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

2. Select "Blackbaud FE NXT" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Blackbaud FE NXT.

   Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, create an app to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties.

   See the Getting Started guide in the CData driver documentation for more information.

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

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Blackbaud FE NXT data from Looker Studio.

Visualize Live Blackbaud FE NXT Data from Looker Studio

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Looker Studio to create a new Blackbaud FE NXT data source and build a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into Looker Studio, click data sources, create a new data source, and choose CData Connect AI Connector.
👁 Create a new connection in Looker Studio

2. Click Authorize and allow access to your Google account. 👁 Granting permissions to the Connector
   
3. Click Authorize to authenticate with your CData Connect AI instance 👁 Authenticating with CData Connect AI
   
4. In the CData Connect AI Connector in Looker Studio select Connections to import from the dropdown and click Next
👁 Importing from Connections

5. Now select a Connection (e.g. FinancialEdgeNXT1) and click Next 👁 Selecting a Connection
   
6. Select a Table (e.g. Accounts) or use a Custom Query and click Connect to continue 👁 Selecting a Table
   
7. If needed, modify columns, click Create Report, and add the data source to the report.
👁 Configuring column definitions

8. Select a visualization style and add it to the report.
9. Select Dimensions and Measures to customize your visualization.
👁 Visualizing Blackbaud FE NXT data in Looker Studio

Live Access to Blackbaud FE NXT Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Blackbaud FE NXT data from your Looker Studio workbook. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Blackbaud FE NXT data.

Try CData Connect AI and get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.