Query, Visualize, and Share live PCA Sales Data in Redash

Redash is a collaboration tool that lets you query, visualize, and share your data. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, Redash gets access to live PCA Sales data. This article demonstrates how to connect to PCA Sales using Connect Cloud and work with live PCA Sales data in Redash.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL Server interface for PCA Sales, allowing you to query data from PCA Sales 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 PCA Sales, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested PCA Sales data quickly.

Configure PCA Sales Connectivity for Redash

Connectivity to PCA Sales from Redash is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with PCA Sales data in Redash, we start by creating and configuring a PCA Sales connection.

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

2. Select "PCA Sales" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to PCA Sales.

   In order to authenticate using the OAuth, specify the following:

   • AuthScheme: Set to OAuth.

   In order to authenticate using the OAuth Password, specify the following:

   • AuthScheme: Set to OAuthPassword.
   • User: Enter the PCA Sales username.
   • Password: Enter the PCA Sales password.
   • ServiceId: Enter the Service ID used to connect tot he PCA API server.
   • ServicePassword: Enter the Service Password for the above Service ID.

   For both authentication methods, specify the following:

   • Data Center: Enter the name for the PCA API Server.
   • Default Data Area: Enter the data area to which you want to connect.
   • Product Code: Enter "Kon20" or "Acc20."

   For more information, refer to the Help documentation.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add PCA Sales 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 PCA Sales data from Redash.

Connect to PCA Sales from Redash using Connect Cloud

To establish a connection from Redash to CData Connect Cloud using the Virtual SQL Server, follow these steps:

1. Log into Redash.
2. Click the settings widget on the top right.
3. Click New Data Source.
4. Select Microsoft SQL Server as the Data Source Type.
5. On the configuration tab, set the following properties:
   • Database Name: enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect Cloud data source you want to connect to (for example, Salesforce1).
   • Server: enter the virtual SQL Server host name (tds.cdata.com)
   • User: enter your CData Connect Cloud username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect Cloud interface. For example, [email protected].
   • Password: enter the PAT you generated on the Settings page.
   • Port: enter 14333
   
6. Click Create.
7. Click Test Connection to ensure that the connection is configured properly.

You can now work with live PCA Sales data in Redash.

Get CData Connect Cloud

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