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URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/dynamics365-cloud-bubble.rst

⇱ Build Dynamics 365-Connected Apps in Bubble

Build Dynamics 365-Connected Apps in Bubble

👁 Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Use CData Connect AI to create an OData feed for Dynamics 365 Data and create custom apps in Bubble.

Bubble is a no-code platform that simplifies the process of developing and launching apps and businesses. When coupled with CData Connect AI, you gain effortless no-code access to Dynamics 365 data for streamlined app development. This article guides you through the integration process from Bubble to Dynamics 365 using CData Connect AI.

CData Connect AI provides a pure cloud-to-cloud OData interface for Dynamics 365 data that allows you to integrate from Bubble to Dynamics 365 data in real time.

About Dynamics 365 Data Integration

CData simplifies access and integration of live Microsoft Dynamics 365 data. Our customers leverage CData connectivity to:

  • Read and write data in the full Dynamics 365 ecosystem: Sales, Customer Service, Finance & Operations, Marketing, and more.
  • Extend the native features of Dynamics CRM with customizable caching and intelligent query aggregation and separation.
  • Authenticate securely with Dynamics 365 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 their Dynamics 365 entities - listing, creating, and removing associations between entities.

CData customers use our Dynamics 365 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 Dynamics 365 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 Dynamics 365 from Bubble

To work with Dynamics 365 data from Bubble, we need to connect to Dynamics 365 from Connect AI, provide user access to the connection, and create a Workspace for the Dynamics 365 data.

Connect to Dynamics 365 from Connect AI

CData Connect AI uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
    2. 👁 Adding a Connection
  2. Select "Dynamics 365" from the Add Connection panel
    3. 👁 Selecting a data source
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Dynamics 365.

    Edition and OrganizationUrl are required connection properties. The Dynamics 365 connector supports connecting to the following editions: CustomerService, FieldService, FinOpsOnline, FinOpsOnPremise, HumanResources, Marketing, ProjectOperations and Sales.

    For Dynamics 365 Business Central, use the separate Dynamics 365 Business Central driver.

    OrganizationUrl is the URL to your Dynamics 365 organization. For instance, https://orgcb42e1d0.crm.dynamics.com

    👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
  4. Click Save & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Dynamics 365 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.

Configure Dynamics 365 Endpoints for Bubble

After connecting to Dynamics 365, create a workspace for your desired table(s).

  1. 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.
  2. Click Add to add new assets to the Workspace.
  3. Select the Dynamics 365 connection (e.g. Dynamics3651) and click Next. 👁 Selecting an Asset (Salesforce is shown).
  4. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm. 👁 Selecting Tables (Salesforce is shown).
  5. 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 Dynamics 365 data from Bubble.

Build a Dynamics 365-Connected App

With OData endpoints added to Connect AI, you can build an app in Bubble with live access to Dynamics 365 data.

Configure the Bubble API Connector

To start, Configure the API Connector for accessing CData Connect AI from Bubble.

  1. In your app, click the Plugins tab and click Add plugins
  2. Search for "API Connector" and click Install 👁 Installing the API Connector plugin
  3. After installation, click the "Add another API" button and configure the API:
    • Name the API
    • Set Authentication to "HTTP Basic Auth"
    • Set Username to a Connect AI user (e.g. [email protected])
    • Set Password to the PAT for the user
    • Expand the API Call, select the "GET" command and set the URL to a Workspace endpoint you previously configured (e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}/GoalHeadings)
    👁 Configuring the API Call
  4. Click the "Initialize call" button to adjust data types in the response (as needed) 👁 Initializing the call
  5. After making any necessary changes, click "Save" 👁 Saving the data types

Configure the App UI

With the API Connector configure, you are ready to retrieve Dynamics 365 data in your Bubble app. In this article, we request the data with a UI component that can display an Excel-like table.

  1. On the Plugin tab, install the "Excel-like HandsonTable" 👁 Adding the Excel-like HandsonTable plugin
  2. On the Design tab, add an "Excel Table" to the workspace 👁 Adding an Excel Table to the app
  3. In the Excel Table, in Data source, select "Get data from an external API"
  4. Set Type of content to "API Call value"
  5. Set Data source to "CData Connect AI - API Call's value" (or equivalent) 👁 Binding the Excel Table to the API Call
  6. Click "Preview" to ensure the data was retrieved from Dynamics 365. 👁 Previewing the app

At this point, you can develop applications with live access to Dynamics 365 data without needing to know the complexities of the back-end API.

Live Access to Dynamics 365 Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live Dynamics 365 data from Bubble. You can create more Dynamics 365-connected apps — all without writing any code or replicating Dynamics 365 data.

To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, see the CData Connect AI.