Build Salesforce-Connected Visualizations in datapine

datapine is a browser-based business intelligence platform. When paired with the CData Connect Cloud, you get access to your Salesforce data directly from your datapine visualizations and dashboards. This article describes connecting to Salesforce in CData Connect Cloud and building a simple Salesforce-connected visualization in datapine.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL Server interface for Salesforce, allowing you to query data from Salesforce without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to Salesforce, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested Salesforce data quickly.

Configure Salesforce Connectivity for datapine

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

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

   There are several authentication methods available for connecting to Salesforce: Login, OAuth, and SSO. The Login method requires you to have the username, password, and security token of the user.

   If you do not have access to the username and password or do not wish to require them, you can use OAuth authentication.

   SSO (single sign-on) can be used by setting the SSOProperties, SSOLoginUrl, and TokenUrl connection properties, which allow you to authenticate to an identity provider. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for more information.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Salesforce 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.

Connecting to Salesforce from datapine

Once you configure your connection to Salesforce in Connect Cloud, you are ready to connect to Salesforce from datapine.

1. Log into datapine
2. Click Connect to navigate to the "Connect" page
3. Select MS SQL Server as the data source
4. In the Integration step, fill in the connection properties and click "Save and Proceed"
   • Set the Internal Name
   • Set Database Name to the name of the connection we just configured (e.g. Salesforce1)
   • Set Host / IP to "tds.cdata.com"
   • Set Username to your Connect Cloud username (e.g. user@mydomain.com)
   • Set Password to the corresponding PAT
   • Set Database Port to "14333"
5. In the Data Schema step, select the tables and fields to visualize and click "Save and Proceed"
6. In the References step, define any relationships between your selected tables and click "Save and Proceed"
7. In the Data Transfer step, click "Go to Analyzer"

Visualize Salesforce Data in datapine

After connecting to CData Connect Cloud, you are ready to visualize your Salesforce data in datapine. Simply select the dimensions and measures you wish to visualize!

Having connect to Salesforce from datapine, you are now able to visualize and analyze real-time Salesforce data no matter where you are. To get live data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from datapine, try CData Connect Cloud today!