Discover how a bimodal integration strategy can address the major data management challenges facing your organization today.
Get the Report →Visualize Dynamics NAV Data in Tableau Desktop (through CData Connect)
Create a virtual SQL Server database for Dynamics NAV data in CData Connect (or Connect Server) and build visualizations from live Dynamics NAV data in Tableau Desktop.
Tableau is a visual analytics platform transforming the way businesses use data to solve problems. When paired with CData Connect (or Connect Server), you can easily get access to live Dynamics NAV data within Tableau.
CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for Dynamics NAV, allowing you to easily build reports from live Dynamics NAV data in Tableau Desktop — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. As you build visualizations, Tableau Desktop generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Server pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Dynamics NAV, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested Dynamics NAV data.
This article shows how to create a virtual SQL Server database for Dynamics NAV, connect to the virtual database in Tableau, and build a simple chart.
Create a Virtual SQL Server Database for Dynamics NAV Data
CData Connect Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.
- Login to Connect Server and click Connections.
- Select "Dynamics NAV" from Available Data Sources.
-
Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Dynamics NAV.
Before you can connect, OData Services will need to be enabled on the server. Once OData Services are enabled, you will be able to query any Services that are published on the server.
The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid Dynamics NAV user credentials. In addition, you will need to specify a URL to a valid Dynamics NAV server organization root and a ServerInstance. If there is not a Service Default Company for the server, you will need to set the Company as well.
- Click Save Changes
- Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions.
With the virtual database created, you are ready to connect to Dynamics NAV data from Tableau Desktop.
Visualize Live Dynamics NAV Data in Tableau Desktop
The steps below outline connecting to the virtual Dynamics NAV database in CData Connect and building a simple visualization from the data.
- Open Tableau and click "Microsoft SQL Server" under Connect -> To a Server.
- In the connection wizard, enter the values for your CData Connect instance and click "Sign In"
- Server: the address of your Connect instance and port of the TDS endpoint, separated by a comma (default port is: 1433)
- Database: the virtual database you configured for the Dynamics NAV data
- Username & Password: the credentials for a CData Connect user
- Select your newly created database and the table(s) you wish to visualize (defining relationships for JOINed tables as needed).
- Select Dimensions and Measures and configure your visualization.
SQL Access to Dynamics NAV Data from On-Premise Applications
At this point, you have a direct connection to live Dynamics NAV data from your Tableau Desktop workbook. You can create new visualizations, build dashboards, and more. For more information on gaining SQL access to data from more than 200 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources (including Dynamics NAV) from desktop applications like Tableau refer to our CData Connect page or download a free trial.