Build Microsoft Project-Connected Visualizations in datapine

datapine is a browser-based business intelligence platform. When paired with the CData Connect AI, you get access to your Microsoft Project data directly from your datapine visualizations and dashboards. This article describes connecting to Microsoft Project in CData Connect AI and building a simple Microsoft Project-connected visualization in datapine.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL Server interface for Microsoft Project, allowing you to query data from Microsoft Project without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to Microsoft Project, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested Microsoft Project data quickly.

Configure Microsoft Project Connectivity for datapine

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

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection

2. Select "Microsoft Project" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Microsoft Project.

   The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid Microsoft Project user credentials. In addition, specify a URL to a valid Microsoft Project server organization root or Microsoft Project services file.

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

Connecting to Microsoft Project from datapine

Once you configure your connection to Microsoft Project in Connect AI, you are ready to connect to Microsoft Project from datapine.

1. Log into datapine
2. Click Connect to navigate to the "Connect" page
3. Select MS SQL Server as the data source
4. In the Integration step, fill in the connection properties and click "Save and Proceed"
   • Set the Internal Name
   • Set Database Name to the name of the connection we just configured (e.g. MicrosoftProject1)
   • Set Host / IP to "tds.cdata.com"
   • Set Username to your Connect AI username (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to the corresponding PAT
   • Set Database Port to "14333"
   👁 Configuring the connection to CData Connect AI
   
5. In the Data Schema step, select the tables and fields to visualize and click "Save and Proceed" 👁 Selecting tables and fields to visualize (Salesforce is shown)
   
6. In the References step, define any relationships between your selected tables and click "Save and Proceed" 👁 Defining foreign key relationships
   
7. In the Data Transfer step, click "Go to Analyzer"

Visualize Microsoft Project Data in datapine

After connecting to CData Connect AI, you are ready to visualize your Microsoft Project data in datapine. Simply select the dimensions and measures you wish to visualize!

Having connect to Microsoft Project from datapine, you are now able to visualize and analyze real-time Microsoft Project data no matter where you are. To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from datapine, try CData Connect AI today!