Build Interactive Dashboards from Zoom Data in Amazon QuickSight

Amazon QuickSight allows users to build interactive dashboards in the cloud. When paired with CData Connect Server, you get direct access to Zoom data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for Zoom in Connect Server and build dashboards in Amazon QuickSight with access to Zoom data.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for Zoom, allowing you to easily build reports from live Zoom data in Quicksight — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. As you build visualizations, Quicksight 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 Zoom, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested Zoom data.

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

   Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the Zoom Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\Zoom.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Zoom (see below).

   Zoom API Profile Settings

   To authenticate to Zoom, you can use the OAuth standard to connect to your own data or to allow other users to connect to their data.

   First you will need to create an OAuth app. To do so, navigate to https://marketplace.zoom.us/develop/create and click Create under the OAuth section. Select whether or not the app will be for individual users or for the entire account, and uncheck the box to publish the app. Give the app a name and click Create. You will then be given your Client Secret and Client ID

   After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

   • AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
   • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to manage the process to obtain the OAuthAccessToken.
   • OAuthClientID: Set this to the OAuth Client ID that is specified in your app settings.
   • OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the OAuth Client Secret that is specified in your app settings.
   • CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI you specified in your app settings.
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 Zoom data from Quicksight.

Import Zoom Data into SPICE and Create Interactive Dashboards

The steps below outline creating a new data set based on the virtual Zoom database in Connect Server, importing the dataset into SPICE, and building a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into Amazon QuickSight and on the left panel click "Datasets"
2. Click "New dataset," select SQL Server as the data source, configure the connection to your Connect Server instance, and click "Create data source"
3. Select a table to visualize (or submit a custom SQL query for your data) and click Select.
4. Select "Import to SPICE for quicker analytics" and click "Visualize."
5. Select fields to visualize as well as a visual type.

Schedule Refreshes for SPICE Data Sets

QuickSight users can schedule refreshes for data sets that are imported into SPICE, ensuring that data being analyzed is only as old as the most recent refresh.

1. Navigate to the QuickSight home page.
2. Click "Manage data."
3. Select the data set you wish to refresh.
4. Click "Schedule refresh."
5. Click Create, configure the refresh settings (time zone, repeat frequency, and starting datetime), and click Create.

SQL Access to Zoom Data from Applications

At this point, you have a direct connection to Zoom data from your Amazon QuickSight dashboard. You can create new visualizations, build interactive dashboards, and more. For more information on gaining SQL access to data from more than 250 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources from applications like Amazon QuickSight, refer to our Connect Server page.