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URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/xero-odbc-dundas-bi.rst

⇱ Build Dashboards with Xero Data in Dundas BI

Build Dashboards with Xero Data in Dundas BI

👁 Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Create dynamic dashboards and perform analytics based on Xero data in Dundas BI.

The CData ODBC Driver for Xero enables access to live data from Xero under the ODBC standard, allowing you work with Xero data in a wide variety of BI, reporting, and ETL tools and directly, using familiar SQL queries. This article shows how to connect to Xero data as a generic ODBC Data Provider and create charts, reports, and dashboards based on Xero data in Dundas BI.

About Xero Data Integration

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

  • Connect to Xero Accounts and both US and Australian Payroll APIs.
  • Read, write, update, and delete Xero objects like Customers, Transactions, Invoices, Sales Receipts and more.
  • Use SQL stored procedures for actions like adding items to a cart, submitting orders, and downloading attachments.
  • Work with accounting, payroll, file, fixed asset, and project data.

Customers regularly integrate their Xero data with preferred tools, like Tableau, Qlik Sense, or Excel, and integrate Xero data into their database or data warehouse.


Getting Started


Connect to Xero Data

  1. If you have not already done so, provide values for the required connection properties in the data source name (DSN). You can configure the DSN using the built-in Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator. This is also the last step of the driver installation. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the Help documentation for a guide to using the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure a DSN.

    To connect, set the Schema connection property in addition to any authentication values. Xero offers authentication for private applications, public applications, and partner applications. Set the XeroAppAuthentication property to PUBLIC, PRIVATE, or PARTNER, depending on the type of application configured. To connect from a private application, you will additionally need to set the OAuthAccessToken, OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, CertificateStoreType, CertificateStore, and CertificateStorePassword.

    To connect from a public or partner application, you can use the embedded OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL, or you can register an app to obtain your own OAuth values.

    See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to authenticating to Xero.

    When you configure the DSN, 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.

  2. Open the Dundas BI interface, open the menu, and click New Data Connector. 👁 Adding a New Data Connector.
  3. Configure the Dundas BI Data Connector:
    • Name the Data Connector.
    • Select "ODBC generic" as the Data Provider.
    • Check the "Use System DSN" checkbox.
    • Select the appropriate System DSN.
    👁 Configure the Data Connector.

Add Xero Data to a Dashboard

You are now ready to create a dashboard with Xero data.

  1. Navigate to the Home page.
  2. Click Explore Data.
    3. 👁 Home > Explore Data
  3. Expand the appropriate Data Connector.
  4. Drag the relevant data from the Connector to the panel.
    • You can select an entire "table" to add, but you may need to remove Measures/Rows from the Metric Set to build an appropriate visualization. Alternatively, you can select only the fields you wish to include in the visualization.
    • With the fields selected, you can add any filters or conditions on the Measures and Rows, further customizing the visualization.
    5. 👁 Adding data from a Data Connector. (Salesforce is shown.)
  5. Click Re-visualize from the menu bar and select the appropriate visualization for the data.
    6. 👁 Displayed Data. (Salesforce is shown.)
  6. Click Add To New Dashboard to add the visualization to a new dashboard.
    7. 👁 Adding the Visualization to a Dashboard. (Salesforce is shown.)
  7. Configure the dashboard, creating dynamic visualizations of Xero data. 👁 Sample Dashboard (Salesforce data is shown.)

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the Xero ODBC Driver to get started:

 Download Now

Learn more:

👁 Xero Icon
Xero ODBC Driver

The Xero ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from Xero accounting software , directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Xero data like you would a database - read, write, and update Xero Customers, Transactions, Invoices, Sales Receipts, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.