Visualize Dynamics 365 Business Central Data in Sisense

Sisense lets you join, analyze, and picture data to make more intelligent business decisions and craft effective strategies. The CData JDBC Driver for Dynamics 365 Business Central makes it easy to integrate with Dynamics 365 Business Central data in Sisense. This article shows how to create an ElastiCube that connects to Dynamics 365 Business Central data and use the ElastiCube to visualize Dynamics 365 Business Central data in Sisense.

Configure the Connection to Dynamics 365 Business Central

Before creating the ElastiCube, note the installation location for the JAR file for the JDBC Driver (typically C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for Dynamics 365 Business Central 20XX\lib) or copy the jar file (cdata.jdbc.d365businesscentral.D365BusinessCentral.jar) to a new folder in the Sisense JDBC driver directory (typically C:\ProgramData\Sisense\DataConnectors\jdbcdrivers).

1. In the Data page of the Sisense application, create a new ElastiCube (or open an existing one).
2. In the Model Editor, click "+ Data" to open the Add Data dialog box.
3. Click Generic JDBC to open the JDBC settings. 👁 Connecting via JDBC
   
4. Set the connection string property to the JDBC URL for Dynamics 365 Business Central, adding required properties.

   To authenticate to Dynamics 365 Business Central, you must select an AuthScheme and provide the required properties (OAuth by default).

   All Methods

   Specify the . If you have multiple companies in your organization, you must also specify the to indicate which company you would like to connect to. does not need to be specified if you have only one company.

   Access Key

   To authenticate with an Access Key, set AuthScheme to "AccessKey" and provide the and properties.

   To obtain the and values, navigate to the Users page in Dynamics 365 Business Central and then click on Edit. The User Name and Web Service Access Key values are what you will enter as the and connection string properties. Note that the User Name is not your email address. It is a shortened user name.

   If you wish to authenticate through other methods, refer to the Help documentation.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

   For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Dynamics 365 Business Central JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.d365businesscentral.jar
   

   Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

   👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)
   

   When you configure the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

   A typical example follows:

   jdbc:d365businesscentral:OrganizationUrl=https://myaccount.financials.dynamics.com/;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;
   

5. Set the JDBC JARs folder property to the location of the CData JDBC Driver JAR file (see above).
6. Set the driver's class name to the class name for the JDBC Driver: cdata.jdbc.d365businesscentral.D365BusinessCentralDriver
7. Leave the username and password properties blank.
8. Click Next. 👁 A configured connection in Sisense (HubSpot is shown).
   

Add Dynamics 365 Business Central Data to an ElastiCube

Once you are connected to Dynamics 365 Business Central, you can add tables and views to your ElastiCubes.

1. From the Tables list, select the tables and/or views you wish to work with.
2. (Optional) Click "+" to customize the data you want to import with SQL.
3. Click Done. 👁 Selected tables to add to the ElastiCube
   
4. Click Build to build the ElastiCube for analytics.

Visualize Dynamics 365 Business Central Data

With Dynamics 365 Business Central tables added to your ElastiCube, you can perform analytics on your Dynamics 365 Business Central data.

1. Navigate to the Analytics page of the Sisense application
2. Select a Dashboard (or create a new one)
3. Select your Data Source and click Create 👁 Selecting the newly created ElastiCube
   
4. Click "+ Select Data" and choose fields to add to your visualization. 👁 Visualizing data in Sisense (HubSpot is shown).
   

With the CData JDBC Driver for Dynamics 365 Business Central, you can access Dynamics 365 Business Central data right in Sisense for powerful visualization and analytics. Download a free, 30-day trial and start working with Dynamics 365 Business Central data in Sisense today!