Create Sage 50 UK-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 Sage 50 UK data for visualizations, reports, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for Sage 50 UK in Connect Server and build visualizations from Sage 50 UK data in Klipfolio.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for Sage 50 UK, allowing you to easily build reports from live Sage 50 UK 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 Sage 50 UK, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested Sage 50 UK data.

Create a Virtual SQL Server Database for Sage 50 UK 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 "Sage 50 UK" from Available Data Sources.
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Sage 50 UK.

   Note: Only Sage 50 UK 2012 and above are supported.

   The User and Password properties, under the Connection section, must be set to valid Sage 50 UK user credentials. These values will be the same used to log in to the Sage 50 UK software.

   Additionally, the URL property, under the Connection section, will need to be set to the address of the company dataset desired. To obtain the address, do the following:

   1. If you have not already done so, open the Sage 50 UK software.
   2. Click Tools -> Internet Options.
   3. Select the SData Settings tab.
   4. Click the Details button next to Sage 50 Accounts. A window is displayed containing a list of company names along with the address to their corresponding datasets.
   5. Set the URL property to the value in the address field next to the company desired.
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 Sage 50 UK data from Klipfolio.

Connect to Sage 50 UK in Klipfolio

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Server from Klipfolio to create a new Sage 50 UK 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., Sage50UK1)
   • Driver: MS SQL
   • Username: your Connect Server username
   • Password: your Connect Server password
   • SQL Query: any query to retrieve data (e.g., SELECT * FROM TradingAccounts)
   • Select the checkbox to "Include column headers"
6. Click "Get data" to preview the Sage 50 UK 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 Sage 50 UK Data from Applications

Now you have a Klip built from live Sage 50 UK 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 Sage 50 UK data.

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