How to integrate Metabase with Dynamics 365 Business Central Data

Metabase is an open source data visualization tool that allows users to create interactive dashboards. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, users can easily create visualizations and dashboards linked to live Dynamics 365 Business Central data. This article describes how to connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central and build a simple visualization using Dynamics 365 Business Central data.

CData Connect provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Dynamics 365 Business Central, allowing you to easily integrate with live Dynamics 365 Business Central data in Metabase — without replicating the data. Connect looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Metabase and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Dynamics 365 Business Central, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Dynamics 365 Business Central data.

Configure Dynamics 365 Business Central Connectivity for Metabase

Connectivity to Dynamics 365 Business Central from Metabase is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Dynamics 365 Business Central data from Metabase, we start by creating and configuring a Dynamics 365 Business Central connection.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "Dynamics 365 Business Central" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central.

   To authenticate to Dynamics 365 Business Central, you must provide the User and AccessKey properties.

   To obtain the User and AccessKey values, navigate to the Users page in Dynamics 365 Business Central and then click on Edit. The User Name and Web Service Access Key values are what you will enter as the User and AccessKey connection string properties. Note that the User Name is not your email address. It is a shortened user name.

   To connect to data, specify OrganizationUrl. If you have multiple companies in your organization, you must also specify the Company to indicate which company you would like to connect to. Company does not need to be specified if you have only one company.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Dynamics 365 Business Central Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
2. On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give your PAT a name and click Create.
4. 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, you are ready to connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central data from Metabase.

Connect to CData Connect from Metabase

After creating the virtual database, navigate to your Metabase instance. Use the SQL Server interface to connect to Connect Cloud.

1. Navigate to the administration screen (Settings -> Admin) and click "Add Database" from the "Databases" tab
2. Configure the connection to Connect Cloud and click "Save"
   • Database type: Select "SQL Server"
   • Name: Name the connection (e.g. "Dynamics 365 Business Central (Connect Cloud)")
   • Host: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: 14333
   • Database name: The name of the connection you just created (e.g. D365BusinessCentral1)
   • Username: A Connect Cloud username (e.g. user@mydomain.com)
   • Password: The PAT for the above Connect Cloud user
   • Click to Use a secure connection (SSL)

Execute Dynamics 365 Business Central Data with Metabase

Once you configure the connection to Connect Cloud, you can query Dynamics 365 Business Central and build visualizations.

1. Use the "Write SQL" tool to retrieve the Dynamics 365 Business Central data
2. Write a SQL query based on the Dynamics 365 Business Central connection in CData Connect Cloud, e.g.
   
   

   SELECT accountid, Name FROM Accounts

3. Navigate to the "Visualization" screen, choose a visualization, and configure the visualization

More Information & Free Trial

At this point, you have built a simple visualization from Dynamics 365 Business Central data in Metabase. You can continue to work with live Dynamics 365 Business Central data in Metabase just like you would any SQL Server database. For more information on creating a live connection to Dynamics 365 Business Central (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect Cloud page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live Dynamics 365 Business Central data in Metabase today.