Build Microsoft Exchange-Connected Dashboards in Redash

Redash lets you connect and query your data sources, build dashboards to visualize data and share them with your company. When paired with CData Connect Server, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Microsoft Exchange data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for Microsoft Exchange and build visualizations from Microsoft Exchange data in Redash.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for Microsoft Exchange, allowing you to easily build reports from live Microsoft Exchange data in Redash — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. As you build visualizations, Redash 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 Redash.

Visualize Microsoft Exchange Data in Redash

The steps below outline creating a new data source in Redash based on the virtual Microsoft Exchange database in Connect Server and building a simple visualization from the data.

Create a New Data Source

1. Log into Redash, click on your profile and click "Data Sources"
2. Click the " New Data Source" button
3. Select "Microsoft SQL Server" as the Data Source Type
4. On the configuration tab, set the following properties:
   • Name: Name the data source (e.g. Microsoft Exchange (CData Connect))
   • Host: The full URL to your CData Connect instance (e.g. https://connect_server_url)
   • Port: The port of the CData Connect SQL Server endpoint (e.g. 1433)
   • User: A CData Connect user
   • Password: The password for the above user
   • Database name: The name of the virtual database for Microsoft Exchange (e.g. Exchange1)
   • Click the checkbox to Use SSQL
5. Click Create
6. Click the "Test Connection" button to ensure you have configured the connection properly

With the new Data Source created, we are ready to visualize our Microsoft Exchange data.

Create a Microsoft Exchange Data Visualization

1. Click Create -> New Query
2. Select the newly created Data Source (you can explore the data structure in the New Query wizard)
3. Write a SQL statement to retrieve the data, for example:
   SELECT GivenName, Size FROM Contacts
4. Click the "Execute" button to load Microsoft Exchange data into Redash via CData Connect
5. Use the Visualization Editor to create and analyze graphs from Microsoft Exchange data
6. You can schedule the query to refresh and update the visualization periodically

SQL Access to Microsoft Exchange Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to Microsoft Exchange data from Redash. You can create new visualizations, build dashboards, and more. For more information on gaining SQL access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources from cloud applications like Redash, refer to our Connect Server page.