Connect to Raisers Edge NXT in SpagoBI

Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism

Create reports featuring live Raisers Edge NXT data in SpagoBI Studio. Host Raisers Edge NXT reports on SpagoBI Server.

The CData JDBC Driver for Raisers Edge NXT enables you to connect to live Raisers Edge NXT data from business intelligence and data mining tools that support the JDBC standard. This article shows how to integrate Raisers Edge NXT data into a report in SpagoBI Studio and host it on SpagoBI Server.

Deploy the JDBC Driver in SpagoBI Server

Follow the steps to create a JDBC data source for Raisers Edge NXT in SpagoBI Server.

Copy the driver JAR into %CATALINA_BASE%/lib. These files are located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.

Add a Raisers Edge NXT driver resource to the context. The following resource definition can be added to the GlobalNamingResources element in server.xml:

<Resource name="jdbc/raiseredgenxt" auth="Container" type="javax.sql.DataSource" driverclassname="cdata.jdbc.raiseredgenxt.RaiserEdgeNXTDriver" factory="org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.DataSourceFactory" maxactive="20" maxidle="10" maxwait="-1"/>

Add the following resource link to give access to Web applications. For this article, add the following line to META-INF\context.xml for SpagoBI.
```
<ResourceLink global="jdbc/raiseredgenxt" name="jdbc/raiseredgenxt" type="javax.sql.DataSource"/>
```
Restart the server.

After adding the driver to the resources for the SpagoBI server, add the data source: In SpagoBI, click Resources -> Data Source -> Add and enter the following information:

Label: Enter a unique identifier for the driver.
Description: Enter a description for the driver.
Dialect: Select Default Dialect.
Read Only: Select the read-only option. This option determines whether the data source is the default database to save datasets created by the end user.
Type: Select JDBC.
URL: Enter the JDBC URL using the required connection string properties:
Before establishing a connection, supply the SubscriptionKey, found in the Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT Profile.

Authenticating to Raiser's Edge NXT

Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT uses the OAuth authentication standard. You can connect to without setting any connection properties using the embedded OAuth credentials.

Alternatively, you can authenticate by creating a custom app to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties.

See the Help documentation for an authentication guide.

Built-in Connection String Designer

For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Raisers Edge NXT JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.
```
java -jar cdata.jdbc.raiseredgenxt.jar
```
Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.
👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)

A typical JDBC URL is below:
```
jdbc:raiseredgenxt:SubscriptionKey=MySubscriptionKey;OAuthClientId=MyOAuthClientId;OAuthClientSecret=MyOAuthClientSecret;CallbackURL=http://localhost:33333;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;
```
Driver: Enter the class name for the driver: cdata.jdbc.raiseredgenxt.RaiserEdgeNXTDriver

👁 The configuration for the Raisers Edge NXT JDBC data source. (Salesforce is shown.)

Create Reports in SpagoBI Studio

Follow the steps below to populate reports based on Raisers Edge NXT data in SpagoBI Studio. You will create a dataset that populates a chart with the results of an SQL query. In the next section, you will host this report on SpagoBI Server.

First, you will need to connect to Raisers Edge NXT data from a report in SpagoBI Studio:

In SpagoBI Studio, click File -> New -> Project and select Report Project in the Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools folder.
Click File -> New -> Report and select Blank Report.
In the Data Explorer view, right-click Data Sources and click New Data Source.
Select JDBC Data Source and enter a name for the data source.
Click Manage Drivers and click Add to add the driver JAR, cdata.jdbc.raiseredgenxt.jar. The driver JAR is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
In the Driver Class menu, select the driver class, cdata.jdbc.raiseredgenxt.RaiserEdgeNXTDriver.
In the Database URL box, enter the JDBC URL. A typical JDBC URL is below:
```
jdbc:raiseredgenxt:SubscriptionKey=MySubscriptionKey;OAuthClientId=MyOAuthClientId;OAuthClientSecret=MyOAuthClientSecret;CallbackURL=http://localhost:33333;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;
```
See the "Getting Started" chapter of the driver help for a guide to obtaining the required connection properties. 👁 The JDBC data source. (Salesforce is shown.)

After you have connected to Raisers Edge NXT data, create a dataset that contains the results of an SQL query:

Right-click the DataSet folder and click New Data Set. Select the JDBC data source for Raisers Edge NXT and enter a name for the dataset.
Build the SQL query. In this example, this query will be used to add a chart to the dashboard. For example:
```
SELECT Id, AddressLines FROM Constituents WHERE Type = 'Home'
```
👁 The query to be used to populate a chart. (Salesforce is shown.)

You can use the dataset to populate report objects. Follow the steps below to create a chart.

In the Palette view, drag a chart onto the canvas.
In the Select Chart Type tab, select a bar chart.
In the Select Data tab, click the Use Data From option and select the Raisers Edge NXT data set from the menu.
Drag Id from the table to the series for the x-axis.
Drag AddressLines from the table to the series for the y-axis. 👁 Columns in the dataset defined as the x- and y-axes for the chart. (Salesforce is shown.)

Host Raisers Edge NXT Reports on SpagoBI Server

Follow the steps below to host documents based on live Raisers Edge NXT data on SpagoBI Server. You will use the report you created in the previous section as a template. To enable report users to access the live data, create placeholder parameters to be replaced by the Raisers Edge NXT JDBC data source on the server:

If you have not already done so, open the Report Design perspective in SpagoBI Studio.
In the Data Explorer view, right-click the Report Parameters folder and click New Parameter. Add the url parameter and assign an empty value to it. This parameter is a placeholder for the JDBC data source on the SpagoBI Server.
Right-click the Raisers Edge NXT data source and click Edit.
In the Property Binding node, set the JDBC Driver URL binding property to the url parameter: Click the box for the property. In the Category section, select Report Parameters. Select All in the Subcategory section and double-click the parameter.

You can also enter the following in the JavaScript syntax:
```
params["url"].value
```
👁 Placeholder values in the report for the JDBC data source on the server.

Next, create a new document for the report on SpagoBI Server.

In SpagoBI Server, click Documents Development -> Create Document -> Generic Document. The Document Details page is displayed.
To create the document, enter the following:
- Label: Enter a unique identifier for the document.
- Name: Enter a user-friendly name for the document.
- Type: Select Report from the menu.
- Engine: Select BIRT Report Engine.
- Data Source: Select the Raisers Edge NXT Data Source you created in Create a JDBC Data Source for Raisers Edge NXT in SpagoBI Server.
In the Show Document Templates section, select the folder where you want the document to be stored.
In the Template section, click Choose File. Navigate to the folder containing your report project. Select the .rptdesign file.

Note: You can find the path to the project in the project properties.
Click the Save button.