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

⇱ Create Data Visualizations Based On Dynamics 365 Data in Mode

Create Data Visualizations Based On Dynamics 365 Data in Mode

👁 Dibyendu Datta
Dibyendu Datta
Lead Technology Evangelist
Use CData Connect AI to connect to Dynamics 365 Data from Mode and build visualizations using live Dynamics 365 data.

Mode is a collaborative data platform that combines SQL, R, Python, and visual analytics in one place. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Dynamics 365 data for use in data visualizations. This article shows how to connect to Dynamics 365 in Connect AI, connect to Dynamics 365 data in Mode, and create a simple visualization using that data.

CData Connect AI provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Dynamics 365, allowing you to build data visualizations from live Dynamics 365 data in Mode — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. In order to create visualizations, users write SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to Dynamics 365, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested Dynamics 365 data.

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


Configure Dynamics 365 Connectivity for Mode

Connectivity to Dynamics 365 from Mode is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Dynamics 365 data from Mode, we start by creating and configuring a Dynamics 365 connection.

  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.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Dynamics 365 data from Mode.

Connect to Dynamics 365 in Mode

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Mode to create a new Dynamics 365 data source.

  1. Log-in to Mode 👁 Logging In
  2. In the top-left corner of the screen, click the down-arrow next to your name and select Connect a Database... 👁 Selecting Connect to Database
  3. On the next screen, select Microsoft SQL Server. 👁 Selecting Microsoft SQL Server
  4. Enter the Microsoft SQL Server credentials:
    • Display Name: the name for the connection.
    • Host/Port: enter tds.cdata.com in the Host field and 14333 in the Port field.
    • Database name: enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect AI data source you want to connect to (for example, Dynamics3651).
    • 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
    Leave the rest of the connection settings at their default values unless you need to modify them. 👁 Configuring connection settings
  5. At the bottom of the page, click Connect to ensure that you can connect to CData Connect AI.
  6. Upon success, the following screen appears. 👁 New database connection added.

Your connection is now available for use in Mode. To connect to additional data sources from your CData Connect AI account, repeat the setup steps above, changing the value for Database for each data source.

Creating A Mode Visualization

To create a visualization in Mode, follow these steps:

  1. On the current screen, click New Report. The SQL query text editor appears. Enter the following query: 
    			SELECT * FROM [Dynamics365].[GoalHeadings];
    Click Run. The app now shows the query result: 👁 Showing SQL query result.
  2. Running the query activates the New Chart tab. Click this tab and select Pie Chart. 👁 Selecting pie chart.
  3. Now, drop a dimension in the Color section and a measure in the Angle section. 👁 Creating visualization.

    We have now created a visualization of Dynamics 365 data in Mode using CData Connect AI!

Get CData Connect AI

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