Import Cvent Data into the Power BI Service for Visualizations

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Use CData Connect AI to connect to Cvent Data and provide access to live Cvent data for custom reports in the Power BI Service.

Power BI transforms your company's data into rich visuals for you to collect and organize so you can focus on what matters to you. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get access to Cvent data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to connect to Cvent in CData Connect AI, publish a dataset from Power BI Desktop to the Power BI Service and then create reports on Cvent data in the Power BI service.

Configure Cvent Connectivity for Power BI Service

Connectivity to Cvent from Power BI Service is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Cvent data from Power BI Service, we start by creating and configuring a Cvent connection.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
  2. Select "Cvent" from the Add Connection panel
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Cvent.

    Before you can authenticate to Cvent, you must create a workspace and an OAuth application.

    Creating a Workspace

    To create a workspace:

    1. Sign into Cvent and navigate to App Switcher (the blue button in the upper right corner of the page) >> Admin.
    2. In the Admin menu, navigate to Integrations >> REST API.
    3. A new tab launches for Developer Management. Click on Manage API Access in the new tab.
    4. Create a Workspace and name it. Select the scopes you would like your developers to have access to. Scopes control what data domains the developer can access.
      • Choose All to allow developers to choose any scope, and any future scopes added to the REST API.
      • Choose Custom to limit the scopes developers can choose for their OAuth apps to selected scopes. To access all tables exposed by the driver, you need to set the following scopes:
        event/attendees:readevent/attendees:writeevent/contacts:read
        event/contacts:writeevent/custom-fields:readevent/custom-fields:write
        event/events:readevent/events:writeevent/sessions:delete
        event/sessions:readevent/sessions:writeevent/speakers:delete
        event/speakers:readevent/speakers:writebudget/budget-items:read
        budget/budget-items:writeexhibitor/exhibitors:readexhibitor/exhibitors:write
        survey/surveys:readsurvey/surveys:write

    Creating an OAuth Application

    After you have set up a Workspace and invited them, developers can sign up and create a custom OAuth app. See the Creating a Custom OAuth Application section in the Help documentation for more information.

    Connecting to Cvent

    After creating an OAuth application, set the following connection properties to connect to Cvent:

    • InitiateOAuth: GETANDREFRESH. Used to automatically get and refresh the OAuthAccessToken.
    • OAuthClientId: The Client ID associated with the OAuth application. You can find this on the Applications page in the Cvent Developer Portal.
    • OAuthClientSecret: The Client secret associated with the OAuth application. You can find this on the Applications page in the Cvent Developer Portal.
  4. Click Save & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Cvent Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Cvent data from the Power BI service.

Publish a Dataset from Power BI Desktop

Once you connect to Cvent in Connect AI, you can create a dataset in Power BI desktop and publish the dataset to the Power BI service.

  1. Open Power BI Desktop and click Get Data -> Online Services -> CData Connect AI and click "Connect"
  2. Click "Sign in" and authenticate with your CData Connect AI account
  3. After signing in, click "Connect"
  4. Select tables in the Navigator dialog
  5. Click Load to establish the connection to your Cvent data from Power BI

  6. Define any relationships between the selected entities on the Relationships tab.
  7. Click Publish (from the Home menu) and select a Workspace.

Build Reports and Dashboards on Cvent Data in the Power BI Service

Now that you have published a dataset to the Power BI service, you can create new reports and dashboards based on the published data:

  1. Log in to PowerBI.com.
  2. Click Workspaces and select a workspace.
  3. Click Create and select Report.
  4. Select the published dataset for the report.
  5. Choose fields and visualizations to add to your report.

Live Access to Cvent Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live Cvent data from the Power BI service. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Cvent data.

To get live data access to 300+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, sign up for a free trial of CData Connect AI.

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