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

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

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

   There are several authentication methods available for connecting to Salesforce: Login, OAuth, and SSO. The Login method requires you to have the username, password, and security token of the user.

   If you do not have access to the username and password or do not wish to require them, you can use OAuth authentication.

   SSO (single sign-on) can be used by setting the SSOProperties, SSOLoginUrl, and TokenUrl connection properties, which allow you to authenticate to an identity provider. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for more information.

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 Salesforce data from Bold BI.

Visualize Live Salesforce Data in Bold BI

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

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

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