Reveal, an offering from Infragistics, serves as a data visualization tool that seamlessly integrates with CData Connect AI. Together, they empower users to deliver dynamic dashboards using real-time data from a diverse range of data sources, including Microsoft Dataverse data. In this article, we will guide you through the process of connecting to Microsoft Dataverse via Connect AI and subsequently linking Connect AI with Infragistics Reveal to construct a straightforward dashboard.
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
Connect to Microsoft Dataverse from Infragistics Reveal
To work with live Microsoft Dataverse data in Infragistics Reveal, we need to connect to Microsoft Dataverse from Connect AI, provide user access to
the connection, and create a Workspace for the Microsoft Dataverse data.
Connect to Microsoft Dataverse from Connect AI
CData Connect AI uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.
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Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection
- Select "Microsoft Dataverse" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source
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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)
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Click Save & Test
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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.
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Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
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On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
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Give the PAT a name and click Create.
👁 Creating a new PAT
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The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.
Configure Microsoft Dataverse Endpoints for Infragistics Reveal
After connecting to Microsoft Dataverse, create a workspace for your desired table(s).
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Navigate to the Workspaces page and click Add to create a new Workspace (or select an existing workspace).
👁 The Workspaces page.
👁 Adding a new Workspace.
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Click Add to add new assets to the Workspace.
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Select the Microsoft Dataverse connection (e.g. CDS1) and click Next.
👁 Selecting an Asset (Salesforce is shown).
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Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm.
👁 Selecting Tables (Salesforce is shown).
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Make note of the OData Service URL for your workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}
With the connection, PAT, and Workspace configured, you are ready to connect to Microsoft Dataverse data from Infragistics Reveal.
Create a Dashboard in Reveal
With Connect AI configured, we can visualize Microsoft Dataverse data in Reveal.
- Log into Reveal and click Dashboards -> New
👁 Adding a new dashboard
- Click Data Sources -> OData Feed
👁 Adding a new OData data source
- Specify the Connect AI OData API endpoint URL (found on the OData page): https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}
👁 Configuring the OData URL
- Select Generic Credentials and
- Set Username to a Connect AI username (e.g. [email protected])
- Set Password to the PAT for the user
👁 Configuring the credentials
- Select the entity you wish to visualize
👁 Selecting an entity to visualize (Salesforce is shown.)
- Select fields and choose a chart type
👁 Visualizing data in Reveal (Salesforce is shown.)
More Information & Free Trial
At this point, you have created a simple dashboard from live Microsoft Dataverse data. For more information on creating OData feeds from Microsoft Dataverse (and more than 100 other sources), visit the Connect AI page. Sign up for a free trial and start working live Microsoft Dataverse data in tools that consume OData APIs.
