Create Microsoft Exchange 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 Microsoft Exchange data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for Microsoft Exchange and build reports from Microsoft Exchange data in Bold BI.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for Microsoft Exchange, allowing you to easily build reports from live Microsoft Exchange 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 Microsoft Exchange, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested Microsoft Exchange data.

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

   Specify the User and Password to connect to Exchange. Additionally, specify the address of the Exchange server you are connecting to and the Platform associated with the server.

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 Microsoft Exchange data from Bold BI.

Visualize Live Microsoft Exchange Data in Bold BI

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Server from Bold BI to create a new Microsoft Exchange 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 Microsoft Exchange on-demand or choose Extract to load the data into Bold BI
   • Database: Choose the database you created from the drop-down menu (exchangedb)
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 Microsoft Exchange Data from Applications

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

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