Create Dashboards and Visualize Live Sage X3 Cloud Data in Geckoboard

Geckoboard is a business intelligence tool that simplifies the visualization of key performance indicators (KPIs) by creating live dashboards. It allows teams to consolidate data from various sources - such as Salesforce, Snowflake, Google Analytics, and spreadsheets - and display it in a visually engaging and easy-to-understand format. Designed for simplicity and clarity, Geckoboard helps businesses monitor performance, track goals, and make data-driven decisions.

When used with CData Connect AI, you gain instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Sage X3 Cloud data from Geckoboard for dashboards, monitoring, visualizations, and more. This article explains how to connect to Sage X3 Cloud and create visualizations using Sage X3 Cloud data in Geckoboard.

CData Connect AI offers a seamless SQL Server, cloud-to-cloud interface for Sage X3 Cloud, enabling you to effortlessly create dashboards and visualizations using live Sage X3 Cloud data in Geckoboard. While building visualizations, Geckoboard requires SQL queries to retrieve the necessary data. With built-in optimized data processing, CData Connect AI pushes all supported SQL operations (such as filters and JOINs) directly to Sage X3 Cloud, utilizing server-side processing for fast and efficient data retrieval of Sage X3 Cloud data.

Configure Sage X3 Cloud connectivity for Geckoboard

Connectivity to Sage X3 Cloud from Geckoboard is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Sage X3 Cloud data from Geckoboard, we start by creating and configuring a Sage X3 Cloud connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

2. Select "Sage X3 Cloud" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Sage X3 Cloud.

   Sage X3 Cloud uses the OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials flow, and an X-API-Key is also required for API access. Set AuthScheme to OAuth and specify the following connection properties:

   • URL: The base URL of your Sage X3 Cloud instance.
   • OAuthAccessTokenUrl: The OAuth token endpoint (e.g., https://your-auth-domain/oauth/token).
   • OAuthClientId: Your OAuth application client ID.
   • OAuthClientSecret: Your OAuth application client secret.
   • Audience: The API audience value for the token request.
   • XAPIKey: The X-API-Key provided by your Sage X3 Cloud administrator.
   • Folder: The Sage X3 folder name (e.g., SEED). This folder is used as the default schema.
   • Folders (optional): A comma-separated list of Sage X3 folders (e.g., SEED,PERF). Each folder is exposed as a separate schema, so you can query across folders with the Schema.Table syntax.

   The driver obtains an access token with the Client Credentials flow and sends it with the X-API-Key on every API request. With InitiateOAuth set to GETANDREFRESH (the default), the driver acquires and refreshes the token automatically.

   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Sage X3 Cloud Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the 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.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Sage X3 Cloud data from Geckoboard.

Connect live Sage X3 Cloud data in Geckoboard

Follow these steps to establish a connection from Geckoboard to the CData Connect AI Virtual SQL Server API.

1. Log into Geckoboard
2. Add a custom dashboard name and click Add widget
3. Search for "Databases" in the Connect your data search bar
4. Select SQL Server as the Database type
5. Fill in the connection details:
   • Connection name: enter a name for the connection to CData Connect AI
   • Host: enter the Virtual SQL Server endpoint: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: : enter 14333
   • Database name: enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect AI data source you want to connect to (for example, SageX3Cloud1)
   • Username: enter your CData Connect AI username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect AI interface. For example, [email protected]
   • Password: enter the PAT you generated on the Settings page
   
6. Click Connect

After successfully configuring your connection, you can query and visualize your Sage X3 Cloud data.

Visualize live Sage X3 Cloud data in Geckoboard

To visualize live Sage X3 Cloud data in Geckoboard, follow these steps:

1. Write an SQL query to select the specific Sage X3 Cloud data needed for visualization in Paste your SQL query compiler screen

Depending on your use case, you can also generate the desired SQL query using the Playground or Query Builder features of CData Connect AI


2. Choose the visualization type (Line Chart, Bar Chart, or Column Chart) that best suits your business requirements
3. The selected chart will be displayed on Geckoboard
4. Click the menu (three dots in the top-right corner of the graph) and select Edit to modify the SQL query or set a refresh interval for the chart

Live access to Sage X3 Cloud data from cloud applications

At this stage, you have established a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Sage X3 Cloud data in Geckoboard. This enables you to create dashboards to monitor and visualize your data seamlessly.

For more details on accessing live data from over 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources through cloud applications like Geckoboard, visit our Connect AI page.