Create Dashboards and Visualize Live AlloyDB Data in Geckoboard



Use CData Connect Cloud to connect to live AlloyDB data and create dashboards for real-time monitoring and visualization 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 AlloyDB data from Geckoboard for dashboards, monitoring, visualizations, and more. This article explains how to connect to AlloyDB and create visualizations using AlloyDB data in Geckoboard.

CData Connect Cloud offers a seamless SQL Server, cloud-to-cloud interface for AlloyDB, enabling you to effortlessly create dashboards and visualizations using live AlloyDB 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 AlloyDB, utilizing server-side processing for fast and efficient data retrieval of AlloyDB data.

Configure AlloyDB connectivity for Geckoboard

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

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

    The following connection properties are usually required in order to connect to AlloyDB.

    • Server: The host name or IP of the server hosting the AlloyDB database.
    • User: The user which will be used to authenticate with the AlloyDB server.
    • Password: The password which will be used to authenticate with the AlloyDB server.

    You can also optionally set the following:

    • Database: The database to connect to when connecting to the AlloyDB Server. If this is not set, the user's default database will be used.
    • Port: The port of the server hosting the AlloyDB database. This property is set to 5432 by default.

    Authenticating with Standard Authentication

    Standard authentication (using the user/password combination supplied earlier) is the default form of authentication.

    No further action is required to leverage Standard Authentication to connect.

    Authenticating with pg_hba.conf Auth Schemes

    There are additional methods of authentication available which must be enabled in the pg_hba.conf file on the AlloyDB server.

    Find instructions about authentication setup on the AlloyDB Server here.

    Authenticating with MD5 Authentication

    This authentication method must be enabled by setting the auth-method in the pg_hba.conf file to md5.

    Authenticating with SASL Authentication

    This authentication method must be enabled by setting the auth-method in the pg_hba.conf file to scram-sha-256.

    Authenticating with Kerberos

    The authentication with Kerberos is initiated by AlloyDB Server when the ∏ is trying to connect to it. You should set up Kerberos on the AlloyDB Server to activate this authentication method. Once you have Kerberos authentication set up on the AlloyDB Server, see the Kerberos section of the help documentation for details on how to authenticate with Kerberos.

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

Connect live AlloyDB 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, AlloyDB1)
    • 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 AlloyDB data.

Visualize live AlloyDB data in Geckoboard

To visualize live AlloyDB data in Geckoboard, follow these steps:

  1. Write an SQL query to select the specific AlloyDB data needed for visualization in Paste your SQL query compiler screen
  2. 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

  3. Choose the visualization type (Line Chart, Bar Chart, or Column Chart) that best suits your business requirements
  4. The selected chart will be displayed on Geckoboard
  5. 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
  6. Live access to AlloyDB data from cloud applications

    At this stage, you have established a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live AlloyDB 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.

Ready to get started?

Learn more about CData Connect Cloud or sign up for free trial access:

Free Trial