Analyze Raisers Edge NXT Data in Infragistics Reveal

Reveal is a data visualization solution provided by Infragistics and can be paired with the CData API Server to build dynamic dashboards from live Raisers Edge NXT data. The CData API Server generates an OData API for Raisers Edge NXT, which is natively consumable in Reveal. In this article, we walk through connecting to Raisers Edge NXT in API Server and connecting to the API Server from Infragistics Reveal to create a simple dashboard.

Connect to Raisers Edge NXT from API Server

CData API Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.

1. Open API Server and click Settings -> Connection -> Add Connection 👁 Adding a connection
   
2. Select "Raisers Edge NXT" 👁 Selecting a Connector (Salesforce is shown).
   
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Raisers Edge NXT.

   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.

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown).
   

Add Raisers Edge NXT Resource Definitions in API Server

After connecting to Raisers Edge NXT, create Resources, which represent API endpoints for Raisers Edge NXT data.

1. Click Settings -> Resources -> Add Resource 👁 Adding a new resource
   
2. Select the Raisers Edge NXT connection 👁 Selecting a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
3. Select the table you wish to retrieve and click Next 👁 Selecting a Table (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. (Optional) Edit the resource to select specific fields and more
5. Save the settings

Add an API Server User

Create a User to connect to Raisers Edge NXT from Reveal through API Server.

1. Click Settings -> Users
2. Click Add
3. Configure a User with access to the Raisers Edge NXT Connection and Resource(s) 👁 Creating a new user
   

(Optional) Configure Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)

When accessing and connecting to multiple different domains from an application such as Ajax, there is a possibility of violating the limitations of cross-site scripting. In that case, configure the CORS settings in Settings -> Server.

• Enable cross-origin resource sharing (CORS): ON
• Allow all domains without '*': ON
• Access-Control-Allow-Methods: GET, PUT, POST, OPTIONS
• Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Authorization

Save the changes to the settings.

Create a Dashboard in Reveal

With the API Server configured, we can visualize Raisers Edge NXT data in Reveal.

1. Log into Reveal and click Dashboards -> New 👁 Adding a new dashboard
   
2. Click Data Source -> OData Feed 👁 Adding a new OData data source
   
3. Specify the API Server API endpoint URL, for example: https://serverurl/api.rsc 👁 Configuring the OData URL
   
4. Select Generic Credentials and specify the API Server username and authentication token 👁 Configuring the credentials
   
5. Select the entity you wish to visualize 👁 Selecting an entity to visualize (Salesforce is shown.)
   
6. Select fields and choose a chart type 👁 Visualizing data in Reveal (Salesforce is shown.)
   

More Information & Free Trial

At this point, you have created a simple dashboard from live Raisers Edge NXT data. For more information on creating OData feeds from Raisers Edge NXT (and more than 150 other sources), visit the API Server page. Download a free, 30-day trial and start working live Raisers Edge NXT data in tools that consume OData APIs.