Geckoboard is a business intelligence tool that simplifies the visualization of key performance indicators (KPIs) by creating live dashboards. It allows teams to consolidate data from various sources - such as Salesforce, Snowflake, Google Analytics, and spreadsheets - and display it in a visually engaging and easy-to-understand format. Designed for simplicity and clarity, Geckoboard helps businesses monitor performance, track goals, and make data-driven decisions.
When used with CData Connect AI, you gain instant, cloud-to-cloud access to SingleStore data from Geckoboard for dashboards, monitoring, visualizations, and more. This article explains how to connect to SingleStore and create visualizations using SingleStore data in Geckoboard.
CData Connect AI offers a seamless SQL Server, cloud-to-cloud interface for SingleStore, enabling you to effortlessly create dashboards and visualizations using live SingleStore data in Geckoboard. While building visualizations, Geckoboard requires SQL queries to retrieve the necessary data. With built-in optimized data processing, CData Connect AI pushes all supported SQL operations (such as filters and JOINs) directly to SingleStore, utilizing server-side processing for fast and efficient data retrieval of SingleStore data.
Configure SingleStore connectivity for Geckoboard
Connectivity to SingleStore from Geckoboard is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with SingleStore data from Geckoboard, we start by creating and configuring a SingleStore connection.
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Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection
- Select "SingleStore" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source
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Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SingleStore.
The following connection properties are required in order to connect to data.
- Server: The host name or IP of the server hosting the SingleStore database.
- Port: The port of the server hosting the SingleStore database.
- Database (Optional): The default database to connect to when connecting to the SingleStore Server. If this is not set, tables from all databases will be returned.
Connect Using Standard Authentication
To authenticate using standard authentication, set the following:
- User: The user which will be used to authenticate with the SingleStore server.
- Password: The password which will be used to authenticate with the SingleStore server.
Connect Using Integrated Security
As an alternative to providing the standard username and password, you can set IntegratedSecurity to True to authenticate trusted users to the server via Windows Authentication.
Connect Using SSL Authentication
You can leverage SSL authentication to connect to SingleStore data via a secure session. Configure the following connection properties to connect to data:
- SSLClientCert: Set this to the name of the certificate store for the client certificate. Used in the case of 2-way SSL, where truststore and keystore are kept on both the client and server machines.
- SSLClientCertPassword: If a client certificate store is password-protected, set this value to the store's password.
- SSLClientCertSubject: The subject of the TLS/SSL client certificate. Used to locate the certificate in the store.
- SSLClientCertType: The certificate type of the client store.
- SSLServerCert: The certificate to be accepted from the server.
Connect Using SSH Authentication
Using SSH, you can securely login to a remote machine. To access SingleStore data via SSH, configure the following connection properties:
- SSHClientCert: Set this to the name of the certificate store for the client certificate.
- SSHClientCertPassword: If a client certificate store is password-protected, set this value to the store's password.
- SSHClientCertSubject: The subject of the TLS/SSL client certificate. Used to locate the certificate in the store.
- SSHClientCertType: The certificate type of the client store.
- SSHPassword: The password that you use to authenticate with the SSH server.
- SSHPort: The port used for SSH operations.
- SSHServer: The SSH authentication server you are trying to authenticate against.
- SSHServerFingerPrint: The SSH Server fingerprint used for verification of the host you are connecting to.
- SSHUser: Set this to the username that you use to authenticate with the SSH server.
👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
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Click Save & Test
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Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SingleStore 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.
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Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
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On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
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Give the PAT a name and click Create.
👁 Creating a new PAT
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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 SingleStore data from Geckoboard.
Connect live SingleStore data in Geckoboard
Follow these steps to establish a connection from Geckoboard to the CData Connect AI Virtual SQL Server API.
- Log into Geckoboard
- Add a custom dashboard name and click Add widget
👁 Click on Add widget.
- Search for "Databases" in the Connect your data search bar
👁 Search and click on Databases.
- Select SQL Server as the Database type
👁 Select SQL Server.
- Fill in the connection details:
- Connection name: enter a name for the connection to CData Connect AI
- Host: enter the Virtual SQL Server endpoint: tds.cdata.com
- Port: : enter 14333
- Database name: enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect AI data source you want to connect to (for example, SingleStore1)
- Username: enter your CData Connect AI username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect AI interface. For example, [email protected]
- Password: enter the PAT you generated on the Settings page
👁 Configuring the connection to the Virtual SQL Server API
- Click Connect
After successfully configuring your connection, you can query and visualize your SingleStore data.
Visualize live SingleStore data in Geckoboard
To visualize live SingleStore data in Geckoboard, follow these steps:
- Write an SQL query to select the specific SingleStore data needed for visualization in Paste your SQL query compiler screen
👁 Write an SQL query to select specific SingleStore data.
Depending on your use case, you can also generate the desired SQL query using the Data Copilot or Query Builder features of CData Connect AI
👁 Generate an SQL query using AI Generator in Connect AI.
- Choose the visualization type (Line Chart, Bar Chart, or Column Chart) that best suits your business requirements
👁 Choose the visualization type.
- The selected chart will be displayed on Geckoboard
👁 Chart is displayed.
- Click the menu (three dots in the top-right corner of the graph) and select Edit to modify the SQL query or set a refresh interval for the chart
👁 Edit the widget.
Live access to SingleStore data from cloud applications
At this stage, you have established a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live SingleStore data in Geckoboard. This enables you to create dashboards to monitor and visualize your data seamlessly.
For more details on accessing live data from over 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources through cloud applications like Geckoboard, visit our Connect AI page.
