Build Blackbaud FE NXT-Connected Dashboards Using Zoho Analytics

Zoho Analytics is a modern BI and Analytics platform that allows you to connect and analyze your data, while also creating visualizations and dashboards to discover hidden insights. When paired with CData Connect AI, Zoho Analytics provides instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Blackbaud FE NXT data for reporting and analytics. This article demonstrates how to connect to Blackbaud FE NXT using Connect AI and analyze Blackbaud FE NXT data by creating dashboards in Zoho Analytics.

CData Connect AI provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Blackbaud FE NXT, allowing you to analyze Blackbaud FE NXT data in Zoho Analytics — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to Blackbaud FE NXT, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested Blackbaud FE NXT data quickly.

Configure Blackbaud FE NXT Connectivity for Zoho Analytics

Connectivity to Blackbaud FE NXT from Zoho Analytics is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Blackbaud FE NXT data from Zoho Analytics, 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
   

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 Blackbaud FE NXT data from Zoho Analytics.

Connect to Blackbaud FE NXT in Zoho Analytics Using CData Connect AI

To establish a connection from Zoho Analytics to CData Connect AI, follow these steps:

1. Log in to Zoho Analytics.
👁 Logging into Zoho Analytics

2. Create a new connection and select Cloud Databases to open the connection modal.
👁 Creating a new connection

3. Enter the following information:
   • Database Type - select MS SQL Server.
   • Endpoint - enter tds.cdata.com
   • SQL Server Instance Name - leave this blank.
   • Port - enter 14333
   • Username - enter your CData Connect AI username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect AI interface. For example, [email protected].
   • Password - enter the PAT you generated.
   • Database Name - enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect AI data source you want to connect to (for example, FinancialEdgeNXT1).
   • Click Next.
   👁 Displaying configuration settings
   
4. Choose the table that you would like to import from, e.g. Accounts.
👁 Choosing table to import

5. A Data Preview of the table should pop up. Next, enter a Workspace Name and Table Name to be able to refer to in Zoho Analytics. Click Next.
👁 Displaying data preview

6. There is an option to schedule the import periodically. After configuring, click Create.
👁 Scheduling the import

7. Now, the import has been initiated. Click OK.
👁 Initiating the import

8. View your new connection in the Zoho Analytics Explorer.
👁 Viewing new connection

9. Click on the new connection to see the table.
👁 Viewing the table

10. Zoho Analytics can auto-generate dashboards for the user, as seen here:
👁 Auto-generating a dashboard

We have successfully imported Blackbaud FE NXT data into Zoho Analytics and created dashboards.

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