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

⇱ Create Apps from Dynamics 365 Data in Qlik Sense Cloud

Create Apps from Dynamics 365 Data in Qlik Sense Cloud

👁 Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Use CData Connect AI to connect to Dynamics 365 Data and build apps from live Dynamics 365 data in Qlik Sense Cloud.

Qlik Sense Cloud allows you to create and share data visualizations and interact with information in new ways. CData Connect AI creates a live connection to Dynamics 365. By pairing Qlik Sense Cloud with CData Connect AI, you get true cloud-to-cloud connectivity to all of your SaaS and cloud-based Big Data and NoSQL sources — no need to migrate your data or write your integrations. Simply connect to Connect AI from Qlik Sense Cloud and get instant, live access to your Dynamics 365 data.

In this article, we walk through two connections:

  1. Connecting to Dynamics 365 in Connect AI
  2. Connecting to Connect AI from Qlik Sense Cloud to create a model and build a simple dashboard

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 Qlik Sense Cloud

Connectivity to Dynamics 365 from Qlik Cloud is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Dynamics 365 data from Qlik Cloud, 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 Qlik Sense Cloud.

Create a Qlik Sense App from Dynamics 365 Data

This section explains how to add Dynamics 365 data to a Qlik Sense app for visualizations, analytics, reporting, and more.

Create a New App and Upload Data

  1. Log into your Qlik Sense instance and click the button to create a new app 👁 Creating a new app
  2. Name and configure the new app and click "Create"
  3. In the workspace, click to open the new app
  4. Click to add data from files and other sources 👁 Selecting a connector
  5. Select the Microsoft SQL Server connector and set the configuration properties.
    • Set Server to tds.cdata.com
    • Set Port to 14333
    • Set Database to the connection you created (e.g. Dynamics3651)
    • Set User name to the Connect AI user (e.g. [email protected])
    • Set Password to the PAT for the above user
    👁 Configuring the connection
  6. Select an owner for the connection
  7. Select a Dynamics 365 entity (Table) to view 👁 Adding data to the app (Salesforce is shown.)
  8. Click Next, configure the model, and load the data into Qlik Sense.

Generate Insights or Customize Your App

With the data loaded into Qlik Sense, you are ready to begin discovering insights. You can build custom visualizations, reports, and dashboards engineered to gain actionable insights into your Dynamics 365 data.

👁 Generating insights on live data (Salesforce is shown.)

More Information & Free Trial

Now, you have created a simple but powerful dashboard from live Dynamics 365 data. For more information on creating OData feeds from Dynamics 365 (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect AI page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live Dynamics 365 data in Qlik Sense Cloud.