Create Typeform Dashboards in Bold BI

Bold BI allows you to create, share, and collaborate on interactive BI dashboards. When paired with CData Connect Server, you get instant access to Typeform data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for Typeform and build reports from Typeform data in Bold BI.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for Typeform, allowing you to easily build reports from live Typeform data in Bold BI — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. As you build visualizations, Bold BI 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 Typeform, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested Typeform data.

Create a Virtual SQL Server Database for Typeform Data

CData Connect Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.

1. Login to Connect Server and click Connections.
2. Select "Typeform" from Available Data Sources.
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Typeform.

   Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the TypeForm Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\TypeForm.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for TypeForm (see below).

   TypeForm API Profile Settings

   Authentication to TypeForm uses the OAuth standard.

   To authenticate to TypeForm, you must first register and configure an OAuth application with TypeForm here: https://admin.typeform.com/account#/section/tokens. Your app will be assigned a client ID and a client secret which can be set in the connection string. More information on setting up an OAuth application can be found at https://developer.typeform.com/get-started/.

   Note that there are several different use scenarios which all require different redirect URIs:

   • CData Desktop Applications: CData desktop applications (Sync, API Server, ArcESB) accept OAuth tokens at /src/oauthCallback.rst. The host and port is the same as the default port used by the application. For example, if you use http://localhost:8019/ to access CData Sync then the redirect URI will be http://localhost:8019/src/oauthCallback.rst.
   • CData Cloud Applications: CData cloud applications are similar to their desktop counterparts. If you access Connect Cloud at https://1.2.3.4/ then you should use the redirect https://1.2.3.4/src/oauthCallback.rst.
   • Desktop Application: When using a desktop application, the URI https://localhost:33333 is recommended.
   • Web Application: When developing a web application using the driver, use your own URI here such as https://my-website.com/oauth.

   After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

   • AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
   • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to manage the process to obtain the OAuthAccessToken.
   • OAuthClientId: Set this to the Client Id that is specified in your app settings.
   • OAuthClientSecret: Set this to Client Secret that is specified in your app settings.
   • CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI you specified in your app settings.
4. Click Save Changes
5. 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 Typeform data from Bold BI.

Visualize Live Typeform Data in Bold BI

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Server from Bold BI to create a new Typeform data source and build a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into your Bold BI instance, click the data sources tab, create a new data source, and choose the SQL Server connector.
2. Choose the basic configuration and set the connection properties:
   • Name: Name your connection
   • Server name: Your Connect Server instance (CONNECT_SERVER_URL)
   • Port: 1433
   • Username: Your Connect Server username
   • Password: Your Connect Server password
   • Mode: Choose Live to query Typeform on-demand or choose Extract to load the data into Bold BI
   • Database: Choose the database you created from the drop-down menu (typeformdb)
3. Click Connect
4. Select the table to visualize and drag it onto the workspace.
5. Select a visualization style and add it to the report.
6. Click the gear icon for the visualization to configure the visualization properties and assign columns to the visualization.

SQL Access to Typeform Data from Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live Typeform data from your Bold BI workbook. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Typeform data.

To get SQL data access to 200+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your applications, see the CData Connect page.