Build Dashboards with BugHerd Data in DBxtra

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

Connect to BugHerd 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.
   
   

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

   BugHerd API Profile Settings

   BugHerd uses HTTP Basic authentication with an API key as the username. To obtain an API key:

   1. Sign in to your BugHerd account at https://www.bugherd.com
   2. Navigate to Settings > General Settings
   3. Locate the API Key section and copy the generated key

   After obtaining your API key, set the following connection properties:

   • AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.

   Set the following in the ProfileSettings connection property:

   • APIKey: Set this to your BugHerd API key. The driver uses the key as the Basic auth username and sets the password internally to the literal value 'x' as required by BugHerd.

   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 DBxtra application and in the New menu click Project and name the Project.
3. Select ODBC Connection as the Data Connection Type.
4. Click the browse option () for the Data Source.
5. In the Data Link Properties window, select Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers on the Provider tab.
6. On the Connection tab, select the Data Source Name and the initial catalog to use (CData).
7. Name the Connection and select the appropriate User Groups.
8. Double-click the Connection from within the Project to connect to the data.

Create a Dashboard with BugHerd Data

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

1. Right-click Report Objects under the Project and select New Report Object.
2. In the new Report Object, click the link to create the Query.
3. In the Select Data Connection window, select the newly created data connection.
4. On the Query tab, expand the connection objects and select the Tables, Views, and specific columns you wish to include in your dashboard. You can specify search requirements and even create complex queries which include JOINs and aggregations.
5. On the Dashboard tab, select the visualizations and features for your dashboard. Assign the data values from the query to the appropriate fields for the Dashboards items (Values, Series, etc.)

With a new Dashboard created, you are ready to begin analysis of BugHerd data. Thanks to the ODBC Driver for BugHerd, you can refresh the Dashboard and immediately see any changes made at the source. In the same way, you can create and view Reports with live, up-to-date BugHerd data.