Create Reports from Act CRM Data in Looker Studio

Looker Studio, formerly known as Google Data Studio, empowers users to craft customized reports featuring data visualizations that can be shared with clients while reflecting your brand identity. When combined with CData Connect Cloud, you gain immediate cloud-to-cloud access to Act CRM data to create visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article provides step-by-step instructions on establishing a virtual database for Act CRM and generating reports from Act CRM data within Looker Studio.

CData Connect Cloud offers a seamless cloud-to-cloud interface tailored for Act CRM, making it straightforward to construct reports directly from live Act CRM data within Looker Studio without the need for data replication. As you create visualizations, Looker Studio generates queries to retrieve data. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect Cloud efficiently channels all supported query operations, including filters, JOINs, and more, directly to Act CRM. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly provide the requested Act CRM data.

Configure Act CRM Connectivity for Looker Studio

Connectivity to Act CRM from Looker Studio is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Act CRM data from Looker Studio, we start by creating and configuring a Act CRM connection.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "Act CRM" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Act CRM.

   The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid Act! user credentials. In addition to the authentication values, see the following:

   • Connecting to Act! Premium

     In addition to the authentication values, the URL to Act! is also required; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/.

     Additionally, you must specify the ActDatabase you will connect to. This is found by going to the About Act! Premium menu of your account, at the top right of the page, in the ? menu. Use the Database Name in the window that appears.

   • Connecting to Act! Premium Cloud

     To connect to your Act! Premium Cloud account, you also need to specify the ActCloudName property. This property is found in the URL address of the Cloud account; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/ActCloudName/.

   Note that retrieving ActCRM metadata can be expensive. It is advised that you set the CacheMetadata property to store the metadata locally.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Act CRM Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Act CRM data from Looker Studio.

Visualize Live Act CRM Data from Looker Studio

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Cloud from Looker Studio to create a new Act CRM data source and build a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into Looker Studio, click data sources, create a new data source, and choose CData Connect Cloud Connector.
2. Click Authorize and allow access to your Google account.
3. Click Authorize to authenticate with your CData Connect Cloud instance
4. In the CData Connect Cloud Connector in Looker Studio select a Connection (e.g. ActCRM1) and click Next
5. Select a Table (e.g. Activities) or use a Custom Query and click Connect to continue
6. If needed, modify columns, click Create Report, and add the data source to the report.
7. Select a visualization style and add it to the report.
8. Select Dimensions and Measures to customize your visualization.

Live Access to Act CRM Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Act CRM data from your Looker Studio workbook. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Act CRM data.

Try CData Connect Cloud and get real-time data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.