VOOZH about

URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/domino-cloud-alteryx.rst

⇱ Prepare, Blend, and Analyze HCL Domino Data in Alteryx Designer (Connect AI)

Prepare, Blend, and Analyze HCL Domino Data in Alteryx Designer (Connect AI)

👁 Dibyendu Datta
Dibyendu Datta
Lead Technology Evangelist
Build workflows to access live HCL Domino data for self-service data analytics.

Alteryx is a software platform that allows people to work with data more easily. When paired with CData Connect AI, Alteryx provides instant access to HCL Domino data from your data automation processes. This article demonstrates how to connect to HCL Domino using Connect AI and work with HCL Domino data in Alteryx.

CData Connect AI offers a dedicated SQL Server interface for HCL Domino, facilitating data querying without the need for data replication to a native database. With built-in optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect AI efficiently directs all supported SQL operations, including filters and JOINs, straight to HCL Domino. This harnesses server-side processing to rapidly retrieve the desired HCL Domino data.

Configure HCL Domino Connectivity for Alteryx

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

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

    Connecting to Domino

    To connect to Domino data, set the following properties:

    • URL: The host name or IP of the server hosting the Domino database. Include the port of the server hosting the Domino database. For example: http://sampleserver:1234/
    • DatabaseScope: The name of a scope in the Domino Web UI. The driver exposes forms and views for the schema governed by the specified scope. In the Domino Admin UI, select the Scopes menu in the sidebar. Set this property to the name of an existing scope.

    Authenticating with Domino

    Domino supports authenticating via login credentials or an Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) OAuth application:

    Login Credentials

    To authenticate with login credentials, set the following properties:

    • AuthScheme: Set this to "OAuthPassword"
    • User: The username of the authenticating Domino user
    • Password: The password associated with the authenticating Domino user

    The driver uses the login credentials to automatically perform an OAuth token exchange.

    EntraID (formerly AzureAD)

    This authentication method uses Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) as an IdP to obtain a JWT token. You need to create a custom OAuth application in Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) and configure it as an IdP. To do so, follow the instructions in the Help documentation. Then set the following properties:

    • AuthScheme: Set this to "EntraID (formerly AzureAD)"
    • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
    • OAuthClientId: The Client ID obtained when setting up the custom OAuth application.
    • OAuthClientSecret: The Client secret obtained when setting up the custom OAuth application.
    • CallbackURL: The redirect URI defined when you registered your app. For example: https://localhost:33333
    • AzureTenant: The Microsoft Online tenant being used to access data. Supply either a value in the form companyname.microsoft.com or the tenant ID.

      The tenant ID is the same as the directory ID shown in the Azure Portal's Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) > Properties page.

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

Connect to HCL Domino from Alteryx

To establish a connection from Alteryx Desktop to the CData Connect AI Virtual SQL Server, follow these steps:

  1. Set up an account in Alteryx.
  2. Drag and drop a new Input Data tool onto the workflow. 👁 Image
  3. While the Input Data tool is selected, click Set Up a Connection in the navigation panel. A Data connections dialog appears.
  4. Click Data sources. Select Microsoft SQL Server > **Quick connect. 👁 Image
  5. In the Connection Manager dialog, click New.
  6. In the New Data Source dialog, enter the following information:
    • Data Source Name: Microsoft SQL Server ODBC DSN-less.
    • Driver: select ODBC Driver 18 for SQL Server from the drop-down list.
    • Server: tds.cdata.com,14333
    • Database: enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect AI data source you want to connect to (for example, Domino1).
    👁 Image
  7. Click Save. Then click Connect Credential.
  8. In Connections, enter the following:
    • Authentication Method: select Username and password.
    • Credential: select Create New Credential.
    • Credential Name: enter a name to identify the credential.
    • 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 on the Settings page.
  9. Click Test Connection. If successful, click Create and link.
  10. Connect with your credentials.
  11. In the wizard that opens, drag and drop the table to be queried in the Query Builder box. Select the fields by checking the boxes that you want to include in your query. Where possible, the complex queries generated by the filters and aggregations will be pushed down to your data source, while any unsupported operations (which can include SQL functions and JOIN operations) will be managed client-side by the CData SQL engine embedded in the connector. 👁 Image
  12. To further customize the dataset, you can open the SQL Editor and modify the query manually, adding clauses, aggregations, and other operations to ensure that you are retrieving exactly the data desired. 👁 Image
  13. With the query defined, you are ready to work with your data in Alteryx Designer. 👁 Image

Get CData Connect AI

To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your SQL Server database, try CData Connect AI today!