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URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/salesforce-ado-spotfire.rst

⇱ Visualize Salesforce Data in TIBCO Spotfire through ADO.NET

Visualize Salesforce Data in TIBCO Spotfire through ADO.NET

👁 Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Integrate Salesforce data into dashboards in TIBCO Spotfire.

TIBCO Spotfire is a data visualization and business intelligence software developed by TIBCO Software Inc. It allows users to connect, visualize, and share insights from various data sources in real-time. Spotfire provides interactive dashboards, data analytics, and predictive analytics capabilities, enabling users to explore data, uncover trends, and make data-driven decisions. It is commonly used in businesses and organizations to analyze large datasets, gain valuable insights, and improve decision-making processes. Learn more at https://www.tibco.com/analytics.

In this article, we will guide you through the process of utilizing the CData ADO.NET Provider for Salesforce within TIBCO Spotfire. You will learn how to establish a connection and build a basic dashboard.

About Salesforce Data Integration

Accessing and integrating live data from Salesforce has never been easier with CData. Customers rely on CData connectivity to:

  • Access to custom entities and fields means Salesforce users get access to all of Salesforce.
  • Create atomic and batch update operations.
  • Read, write, update, and delete their Salesforce data.
  • Leverage the latest Salesforce features and functionalities with support for SOAP API versions 30.0.
  • See improved performance based on SOQL support to push complex queries down to Salesforce servers.
  • Use SQL stored procedures to perform actions like creating, retrieving, aborting, and deleting jobs, uploading and downloading attachments and documents, and more.

Users frequently integrate Salesforce data with:

  • other ERPs, marketing automation, HCMs, and more.
  • preferred data tools like Power BI, Tableau, Looker, and more.
  • databases and data warehouses.

For more information on how CData solutions work with Salesforce, check out our Salesforce integration page.


Getting Started


  1. Add the CData ADO.NET data source by clicking Add Data Tables.
  2. Click Add -> Database.
  3. Select the provider and click Configure.
  4. Define the connection settings. Below is a typical connection string:

    InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;MFACode=YourMFACode

    There are several authentication methods available for connecting to Salesforce: OAuth, Login (or basic), and SSO. The Login method requires you to have the username, password, and security token of the user.

    OAuth Authentication (default)

    The default authentication mechanism (and the one preferred by Salesforce) is OAuth. To use OAuth with CData's embedded OAuth application, leave the connection properties blank. If you have configured your own custom OAuth application with Salesforce (see the Help documentation for more information), set OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL to the properties for you application. Set InitiateOAuth to the desired OAuth flow ("GETANDREFRESH" will have the connector manage the entire OAuth flow).

    Login (or Basic) Authentication

    If you do not wish do not wish to use OAuth authentication, you can use Login (or basic) authentication. Set AuthScheme to Basic, and set the User, Password, and SecurityToken properties. You can configure your security token in Salesforce.

    SSO (single sign-on) Authentication

    SSO (single sign-on) can be used by setting the SSOProperties, SSOLoginUrl, and SSOExchangeURL connection properties, which allow you to authenticate to an identity provider. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the Help documentation for more information.

    Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

    If your Salesforce org has MFA enforcement enabled, set MFACode to the time-based one-time passcode (TOTP) generated by your authenticator app (such as Salesforce Authenticator or Google Authenticator). MFACode applies to both OAuth and Login authentication flows.

    When you configure the connection, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

    👁 Connection properties in the Configure Data Source Connection dialog. (Salesforce is shown.)
  5. Select the tables that you want to add to the dashboard. This example uses Account. You can also specify an SQL query. The driver supports the standard SQL syntax. 👁 Tables and columns selected in the tree or specified by an SQL query. (Salesforce is shown.)
  6. If you want to work with the live data, click the Keep Data Table External option. This option enables your dashboards to reflect changes to the data in real time.

    If you want to load the data into memory and process the data locally, click the Import Data Table option. This option is better for offline use or if a slow network connection is making your dashboard less interactive.

  7. After adding tables, the Recommended Visualizations wizard is displayed. When you select a table, Spotfire uses the column data types to detect number, time, and category columns. This example uses AnnualRevenue in the Numbers section and Industry in the Categories section.👁 Recommended visualizations for the imported data table. (Salesforce is shown.)

After adding several visualizations in the Recommended Visualizations wizard, you can make other modifications to the dashboard. For example, you can apply a filter: After clicking the Filter button, the available filters for each query are displayed in the Filters pane.

👁 A simple dashboard with a global filter. (Salesforce is shown.)

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the Salesforce Data Provider to get started:

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Learn more:

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