Create Apps from Blackbaud FE NXT Data in Qlik Sense Cloud

Qlik Sense Cloud allows you to create and share data visualizations and interact with information in new ways. CData Connect Cloud creates a live connection to Blackbaud FE NXT. By pairing Qlik Sense Cloud with CData Connect Cloud, you get true cloud-to-cloud connectivity to all of your SaaS and cloud-based Big Data and NoSQL sources — no need to migrate your data or write your integrations. Simply connect to Connect Cloud from Qlik Sense Cloud and get instant, live access to your Blackbaud FE NXT data.

In this article, we walk through two connections:

1. Connecting to Blackbaud FE NXT in Connect Cloud
2. Connecting to Connect Cloud from Qlik Sense Cloud to create a model and build a simple dashboard

Configure Blackbaud FE NXT Connectivity for Qlik Sense Cloud

Connectivity to Blackbaud FE NXT from Qlik Cloud is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Blackbaud FE NXT data from Qlik Cloud, we start by creating and configuring a Blackbaud FE NXT connection.

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

2. Select "Blackbaud FE NXT" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Blackbaud FE NXT.

   Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, create an app to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties.

   See the Getting Started guide in the CData driver documentation for more information.

   
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Blackbaud FE NXT Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect Cloud 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 Cloud. 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 Cloud 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 Blackbaud FE NXT data from Qlik Sense Cloud.

Create a Qlik Sense App from Blackbaud FE NXT Data

This section walks through adding Blackbaud FE NXT data to a Qlik Sense app for visualizations, analytics, reporting, and more.

Create a New App and Upload Data

1. Log into your Qlik Sense instance and click the button to create a new app
2. Name and configure the new app and click "Create"
3. In the workspace, click to open the new app
4. Click to add data from files and other sources
5. Select the Microsoft SQL Server connector and set the configuration properties.
   • Set Server to tds.cdata.com
   • Set Port to 14333
   • Set Database to the connection you created (e.g. FinancialEdgeNXT1)
   • Set User name to the Connect Cloud user (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to the PAT for the above user
   
6. Select an owner for the connection
7. Select a Blackbaud FE NXT entity (Table) to view
8. Click Next, configure the model, and load the data into Qlik Sense.

Generate Insights or Customize Your App

With the data loaded into Qlik Sense, you are ready to begin discovering insights. You can build custom visualizations, reports, and dashboards engineered to gain actionable insights into your Blackbaud FE NXT data.

More Information & Free Trial

Now, you have created a simple but powerful dashboard from live Blackbaud FE NXT data. For more information on creating OData feeds from Blackbaud FE NXT (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect Cloud page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live Blackbaud FE NXT data in Qlik Sense Cloud.