Create SQL Analysis Services Dashboards in Bold BI



Use CData Connect Server to create a virtual SQL Server Database for SQL Analysis Services data to build custom 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 SQL Analysis Services data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for SQL Analysis Services and build reports from SQL Analysis Services data in Bold BI.

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

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

    To connect, provide authentication and set the Url property to a valid SQL Server Analysis Services endpoint. You can connect to SQL Server Analysis Services instances hosted over HTTP with XMLA access. See the Microsoft documentation to configure HTTP access to SQL Server Analysis Services.

    To secure connections and authenticate, set the corresponding connection properties, below. The data provider supports the major authentication schemes, including HTTP and Windows, as well as SSL/TLS.

    • HTTP Authentication

      Set AuthScheme to "Basic" or "Digest" and set User and Password. Specify other authentication values in CustomHeaders.

    • Windows (NTLM)

      Set the Windows User and Password and set AuthScheme to "NTLM".

    • Kerberos and Kerberos Delegation

      To authenticate with Kerberos, set AuthScheme to NEGOTIATE. To use Kerberos delegation, set AuthScheme to KERBEROSDELEGATION. If needed, provide the User, Password, and KerberosSPN. By default, the data provider attempts to communicate with the SPN at the specified Url.

    • SSL/TLS:

      By default, the data provider attempts to negotiate SSL/TLS by checking the server's certificate against the system's trusted certificate store. To specify another certificate, see the SSLServerCert property for the available formats.

    You can then access any cube as a relational table: When you connect the data provider retrieves SSAS metadata and dynamically updates the table schemas. Instead of retrieving metadata every connection, you can set the CacheLocation property to automatically cache to a simple file-based store.

    See the Getting Started section of the CData documentation, under Retrieving Analysis Services Data, to execute SQL-92 queries to the cubes.

  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 SQL Analysis Services data from Bold BI.

Visualize Live SQL Analysis Services Data in Bold BI

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

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

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

Ready to get started?

Learn more or sign up for a free trial:

CData Connect Server