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URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/dataverse-cloud-datapine.rst

⇱ Build Microsoft Dataverse-Connected Visualizations in datapine

Build Microsoft Dataverse-Connected Visualizations in datapine

👁 Dibyendu Datta
Dibyendu Datta
Lead Technology Evangelist
Use CData Connect AI and datapine to build visualizations and dashboards with access to live Microsoft Dataverse data.

datapine is a browser-based business intelligence platform. When paired with the CData Connect AI, you get access to your Microsoft Dataverse data directly from your datapine visualizations and dashboards. This article describes connecting to Microsoft Dataverse in CData Connect AI and building a simple Microsoft Dataverse-connected visualization in datapine.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL Server interface for Microsoft Dataverse, allowing you to query data from Microsoft Dataverse 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 Microsoft Dataverse, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested Microsoft Dataverse data quickly.

About Microsoft Dataverse Data Integration

CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from Microsoft Dataverse (formerly the Common Data Service). Customers use CData connectivity to:

  • Access both Dataverse Entities and Dataverse system tables to work with exactly the data they need.
  • Authenticate securely with Microsoft Dataverse in a variety of ways, including Azure Active Directory, Azure Managed Service Identity credentials, and Azure Service Principal using either a client secret or a certificate.
  • Use SQL stored procedures to manage Microsoft Dataverse entities - listing, creating, and removing associations between entities.

CData customers use our Dataverse connectivity solutions for a variety of reasons, whether they're looking to replicate their data into a data warehouse (alongside other data sources)or analyze live Dataverse data from their preferred data tools inside the Microsoft ecosystem (Power BI, Excel, etc.) or with external tools (Tableau, Looker, etc.).


Getting Started


Configure Microsoft Dataverse Connectivity for datapine

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

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
    2. 👁 Adding a Connection
  2. Select "Microsoft Dataverse" from the Add Connection panel
    3. 👁 Selecting a data source
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Microsoft Dataverse.

    You can connect without setting any connection properties for your user credentials. Below are the minimum connection properties required to connect.

    • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
    • OrganizationUrl: Set this to the organization URL you are connecting to, such as https://myorganization.crm.dynamics.com.
    • Tenant (optional): Set this if you wish to authenticate to a different tenant than your default. This is required to work with an organization not on your default Tenant.

    When you connect the Common Data Service OAuth endpoint opens in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions. The OAuth process completes automatically.

    👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
  4. Click Save & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Microsoft Dataverse 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 Microsoft Dataverse data from datapine.

Connecting to Microsoft Dataverse from datapine

Once you configure your connection to Microsoft Dataverse in Connect AI, you are ready to connect to Microsoft Dataverse from datapine.

  1. Log into datapine
  2. Click Connect to navigate to the "Connect" page
  3. Select MS SQL Server as the data source
  4. In the Integration step, fill in the connection properties and click "Save and Proceed"
    • Set the Internal Name
    • Set Database Name to the name of the connection we just configured (e.g. CDS1)
    • Set Host / IP to "tds.cdata.com"
    • Set Username to your Connect AI username (e.g. [email protected])
    • Set Password to the corresponding PAT
    • Set Database Port to "14333"
    👁 Configuring the connection to CData Connect AI
  5. In the Data Schema step, select the tables and fields to visualize and click "Save and Proceed" 👁 Selecting tables and fields to visualize (Salesforce is shown)
  6. In the References step, define any relationships between your selected tables and click "Save and Proceed" 👁 Defining foreign key relationships
  7. In the Data Transfer step, click "Go to Analyzer"

Visualize Microsoft Dataverse Data in datapine

After connecting to CData Connect AI, you are ready to visualize your Microsoft Dataverse data in datapine. Simply select the dimensions and measures you wish to visualize!

👁 Visualizing data in datapine (Salesforce is shown)

Having connect to Microsoft Dataverse from datapine, you are now able to visualize and analyze real-time Microsoft Dataverse data no matter where you are. To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from datapine, try CData Connect AI today!