Create Dashboards and Visualize Live Act CRM Data in Geckoboard

Geckoboard is a business intelligence tool that simplifies the visualization of key performance indicators (KPIs) by creating live dashboards. It allows teams to consolidate data from various sources - such as Salesforce, Snowflake, Google Analytics, and spreadsheets - and display it in a visually engaging and easy-to-understand format. Designed for simplicity and clarity, Geckoboard helps businesses monitor performance, track goals, and make data-driven decisions.

When used with CData Connect Cloud, you gain instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Act CRM data from Geckoboard for dashboards, monitoring, visualizations, and more. This article explains how to connect to Act CRM and create visualizations using Act CRM data in Geckoboard.

CData Connect Cloud offers a seamless SQL Server, cloud-to-cloud interface for Act CRM, enabling you to effortlessly create dashboards and visualizations using live Act CRM data in Geckoboard. While building visualizations, Geckoboard requires SQL queries to retrieve the necessary data. With built-in optimized data processing, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (such as filters and JOINs) directly to Act CRM, utilizing server-side processing for fast and efficient data retrieval of Act CRM data.

Configure Act CRM connectivity for Geckoboard

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

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

   The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid Act! user credentials. In addition to the authentication values, see the following:

   • Connecting to Act! Premium

     In addition to the authentication values, the URL to Act! is also required; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/.

     Additionally, you must specify the ActDatabase you will connect to. This is found by going to the About Act! Premium menu of your account, at the top right of the page, in the ? menu. Use the Database Name in the window that appears.

   • Connecting to Act! Premium Cloud

     To connect to your Act! Premium Cloud account, you also need to specify the ActCloudName property. This property is found in the URL address of the Cloud account; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/ActCloudName/.

   Note that retrieving ActCRM metadata can be expensive. It is advised that you set the CacheMetadata property to store the metadata locally.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Act CRM 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 Act CRM data from Geckoboard.

Connect live Act CRM data in Geckoboard

Follow these steps to establish a connection from Geckoboard to the CData Connect Cloud Virtual SQL Server API.

1. Log into Geckoboard
2. Add a custom dashboard name and click Add widget
3. Search for "Databases" in the Connect your data search bar
4. Select SQL Server as the Database type
5. Fill in the connection details:
   • Connection name: enter a name for the connection to CData Connect Cloud
   • Host: enter the Virtual SQL Server endpoint: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: : enter 14333
   • Database name: enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect Cloud data source you want to connect to (for example, ActCRM1)
   • Username: enter your CData Connect Cloud username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect Cloud interface. For example, [email protected]
   • Password: enter the PAT you generated on the Settings page
6. Click Connect

After successfully configuring your connection, you can query and visualize your Act CRM data.

Visualize live Act CRM data in Geckoboard

To visualize live Act CRM data in Geckoboard, follow these steps:

1. Write an SQL query to select the specific Act CRM data needed for visualization in Paste your SQL query compiler screen

Depending on your use case, you can also generate the desired SQL query using the AI Generator or Query Builder features of CData Connect Cloud

2. Choose the visualization type (Line Chart, Bar Chart, or Column Chart) that best suits your business requirements
3. The selected chart will be displayed on Geckoboard
4. Click the menu (three dots in the top-right corner of the graph) and select Edit to modify the SQL query or set a refresh interval for the chart

Live access to Act CRM data from cloud applications

At this stage, you have established a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Act CRM data in Geckoboard. This enables you to create dashboards to monitor and visualize your data seamlessly.

For more details on accessing live data from over 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources through cloud applications like Geckoboard, visit our Connect Cloud page.