Create Dynamics AX-Connected Visualizations in Klipfolio

Klipfolio is an online dashboard platform for building real-time business dashboards for your team or your clients. When paired with CData Connect Server, you get instant access to Dynamics AX data for visualizations, reports, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for Dynamics AX in Connect Server and build visualizations from Dynamics AX data in Klipfolio.

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

Create a Virtual SQL Server Database for Dynamics AX 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 "Dynamics AX" from Available Data Sources.
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Dynamics AX.

   To connect to DynamicsAX, specify User, Domain, and ObjectServer. You can also surface tables for a specific Company; when this property is blank, the default company is used.

   Alternatively, you can use the .NET Business Connector to connect on behalf of DynamicsAX users. You can obtain the ProxyUser and ProxyDomain properties on the System service accounts form: Click System Administration -> Setup -> System -> System Service Accounts. Additionally, set ProxyPassword.

   By default, only transaction data and base information from the TRANSACTION and MAIN table groups is returned. You can specify which groups to return with TableGroups.

   Set Language to use the same language you use in your DynamicsAX labels.

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 Dynamics AX data from Klipfolio.

Connect to Dynamics AX in Klipfolio

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Server from Klipfolio to create a new Dynamics AX data source.

1. Open Klipfolio
2. Click in Data Feeds on the left panel to add a new data source.
3. Search for and select MS SQL as the Service.
4. Click "Create a custom MSSQL data source"
5. Configure the data source by setting the SQL Server connection properties:
   • Host: your instance (e.g., CONNECT_SERVER_URL)
   • Port: 1433
   • Database: your database (e.g., DynamicsAX1)
   • Driver: MS SQL
   • Username: your Connect Server username
   • Password: your Connect Server password
   • SQL Query: any query to retrieve data (e.g., SELECT * FROM CustInvoiceTrans)
   • Select the checkbox to "Include column headers"
6. Click "Get data" to preview the Dynamics AX data before building a data model.

Build a Data Model

After retrieving the data, click "Continue." In the new window, configure your data model.

1. Confirm that the model includes all columns you wish to work with
2. Name your model
3. (optional) Set the Description
4. Set "Header in row" to 1
5. Click the toggle to "Exclude data before row" and set the value to 2
6. Click "Save data feed"

Create a Klip

With the data modeled, we are ready to create a Klip (or visualization) of the data to be used in the Klipfolio platform for dashboards, reporting, and more.

1. Click "Add Metric"
2. Select a measure, placed on the y-axis, to track.
3. Select up to five dimensions/columns, for the x-axis, that you wish to visualize.
4. Click "Save metric"

SQL Access to Dynamics AX Data from Applications

Now you have a Klip built from live Dynamics AX data. You can add it to a new dashboard, share, and more. Easily create more data sources and new visualizations, produce reports, and more — all without replicating Dynamics AX data.

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