Build Dashboards with Slack Data in Dundas BI



Create dynamic dashboards and perform analytics based on Slack data in Dundas BI.

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

Connect to Slack 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.

    Slack uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, you will need to create an app to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties. See the Getting Started section of the help documentation for an authentication guide.

    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.
  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.

Add Slack Data to a Dashboard

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

  1. Navigate to the Home page.
  2. Click 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. Click Re-visualize from the menu bar and select the appropriate visualization for the data.
  6. Click Add To New Dashboard to add the visualization to a new dashboard.
  7. Configure the dashboard, creating dynamic visualizations of Slack data.

Ready to get started?

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

 Download Now

Learn more:

Slack Icon Slack ODBC Driver

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

Access Slack data like you would a database - read, write, and update Slack User, Channels, Messages, Files, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.