Create Epicor Kinetic Dashboards in Bold BI

Bold BI allows you to create, share, and collaborate on interactive BI dashboards. When paired with CData Connect Server, you get instant access to Epicor Kinetic data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for Epicor Kinetic and build reports from Epicor Kinetic data in Bold BI.

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

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

   To successfully connect to your ERP instance, you must specify the following connection properties:

   • Url:the URL of the server hosting your ERP instance. For example, https://myserver.EpicorSaaS.com
   • ERPInstance: the name of your ERP instance.
   • User: the username of your account.
   • Password: the password of your account.
   • Service: the service you want to retrieve data from. For example, BaqSvc.

   In addition, you may also set the optional connection properties:

   • ApiKey: An optional key that may be required for connection to some services depending on your account configuration.
   • ApiVersion: Defaults to v1. May be set to v2 to use the newer Epicor API.
   • Company: Required if you set the ApiVersion to v2.
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 Epicor Kinetic data from Bold BI.

Visualize Live Epicor Kinetic Data in Bold BI

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Server from Bold BI to create a new Epicor Kinetic data source and build a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into your Bold BI instance, click the data sources tab, create a new data source, and choose the SQL Server connector.
2. Choose the basic configuration and set the connection properties:
   • Name: Name your connection
   • Server name: Your Connect Server instance (CONNECT_SERVER_URL)
   • Port: 1433
   • Username: Your Connect Server username
   • Password: Your Connect Server password
   • Mode: Choose Live to query Epicor Kinetic on-demand or choose Extract to load the data into Bold BI
   • Database: Choose the database you created from the drop-down menu (epicorkineticdb)
3. Click Connect
4. Select the table to visualize and drag it onto the workspace.
5. Select a visualization style and add it to the report.
6. Click the gear icon for the visualization to configure the visualization properties and assign columns to the visualization.

SQL Access to Epicor Kinetic Data from Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live Epicor Kinetic data from your Bold BI workbook. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Epicor Kinetic data.

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