Analyze MailChimp Data in Infragistics Reveal

Reveal is a data visualization solution provided by Infragistics and can be paired with CData Connect Cloud to build dynamic dashboards from live MailChimp data. CData Connect Cloud creates a live connection to MailChimp and can be used to generate an OData API (natively supported in Reveal) for MailChimp. In this article, we walk through connecting to MailChimp in Connect Cloud and connecting to Connect Cloud from Infragistics Reveal to create a simple dashboard.

Configuring Connect Cloud

To work with live MailChimp data in Infragistics Reveal, we need to connect to MailChimp from Connect Cloud, provide user access to the connection, and create OData endpoints for the MailChimp data.

(Optional) Add a New Connect Cloud User

As needed, create Users to connect to MailChimp through Connect Cloud.

1. Navigate to the Users page and click Invite Users
2. Enter the new user's email address and click Send to invite the user
3. You can review and edit users from the Users page

Add a Personal Access Token

If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
2. Oa the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give your PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

Connect to MailChimp from Connect Cloud

CData Connect Cloud uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "MailChimp" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to MailChimp.

   You can set the APIKey to the key you generate in your account settings, or, instead of providing your APIKey, you can use the OAuth standard to authenticate the application. OAuth can be used to enable other users to access their own data. To authenticate using OAuth, you will need to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL by registering an app with MailChimp.

   See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add MailChimp Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add MailChimp OData Endpoints in Connect Cloud

After connecting to MailChimp, create OData Endpoints for the desired table(s).

1. Navigate to the OData page and click Add to create new OData endpoints
2. Select the MailChimp connection (e.g. MailChimp1) and click Next
3. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm

With the connection and OData endpoints configured, you are ready to connect to MailChimp data from Infragistics Reveal.

Create a Dashboard in Reveal

With Connect Cloud configured, we can visualize MailChimp data in Reveal.

1. Log into Reveal and click Dashboards -> New
2. Click Data Sources -> OData Feed
3. Specify the Connect Cloud OData API endpoint URL (found on the OData page): https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/service
4. Select Generic Credentials and
   • Set Username to a Connect Cloud username (e.g. user@mydomain.com)
   • Set Password to the PAT for the user
5. Select the entity you wish to visualize
6. Select fields and choose a chart type

More Information & Free Trial

At this point, you have created a simple dashboard from live MailChimp data. For more information on creating OData feeds from MailChimp (and more than 100 other sources), visit the Connect Cloud page. Sign up for a free trial and start working live MailChimp data in tools that consume OData APIs.