Build Dynamics 365 Business Central-Connected Visualizations in datapine

datapine is a browser-based business intelligence platform. When paired with the CData Connect Cloud, you get access to your Dynamics 365 Business Central data directly from your datapine visualizations and dashboards. This article describes connecting to Dynamics 365 Business Central in CData Connect Cloud and building a simple Dynamics 365 Business Central-connected visualization in datapine.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL Server interface for Dynamics 365 Business Central, allowing you to query data from Dynamics 365 Business Central without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to Dynamics 365 Business Central, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested Dynamics 365 Business Central data quickly.

Configure Dynamics 365 Business Central Connectivity for datapine

Connectivity to Dynamics 365 Business Central from datapine is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Dynamics 365 Business Central data from datapine, we start by creating and configuring a Dynamics 365 Business Central connection.

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

2. Select "Dynamics 365 Business Central" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central.

   To authenticate to Dynamics 365 Business Central, you must select an AuthScheme and provide the required properties.To authenticate with an Access Key, set AuthScheme to "AccessKey" and provide the User and AccessKey properties.

   To obtain the User and AccessKey values, navigate to the Users page in Dynamics 365 Business Central and then click on Edit. The User Name and Web Service Access Key values are what you will enter as the User and AccessKey connection string properties. Note that the User Name is not your email address. It is a shortened user name.

   Additionally, specify OrganizationUrl. If you have multiple companies in your organization, you must also specify the Company to indicate which company you would like to connect to. Company does not need to be specified if you have only one company.

   If you wish to authenticate through other methods, refer to the Help documentation.

   
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Dynamics 365 Business Central 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 Dynamics 365 Business Central data from datapine.

Connecting to Dynamics 365 Business Central from datapine

Once you configure your connection to Dynamics 365 Business Central in Connect Cloud, you are ready to connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central from datapine.

1. Log into datapine
2. Click Connect to navigate to the "Connect" page
3. Select MS SQL Server as the data source
4. In the Integration step, fill in the connection properties and click "Save and Proceed"
   • Set the Internal Name
   • Set Database Name to the name of the connection we just configured (e.g. D365BusinessCentral1)
   • Set Host / IP to "tds.cdata.com"
   • Set Username to your Connect Cloud username (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to the corresponding PAT
   • Set Database Port to "14333"
   
5. In the Data Schema step, select the tables and fields to visualize and click "Save and Proceed"
6. In the References step, define any relationships between your selected tables and click "Save and Proceed"
7. In the Data Transfer step, click "Go to Analyzer"

Visualize Dynamics 365 Business Central Data in datapine

After connecting to CData Connect Cloud, you are ready to visualize your Dynamics 365 Business Central data in datapine. Simply select the dimensions and measures you wish to visualize!

Having connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central from datapine, you are now able to visualize and analyze real-time Dynamics 365 Business Central data no matter where you are. To get live data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from datapine, try CData Connect Cloud today!