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Analyze Act CRM Data in Infragistics Reveal
Use the CData API Server to create an OData API on top of Act CRM data and visualize live Act CRM data in Ingragistics Reveal.
Reveal is a data visualization solution provided by Infragistics and can be paired with the CData API Server and Act CRM ADO.NET Provider to build dynamic dashboards from live Act CRM data. The CData API Server generates an OData API for Act CRM, which is natively consumable in Reveal. In this article, we walk through connecting to Act CRM in API Server and connecting to the API Server from Infragistics Reveal to create a simple dashboard.
Connect to Act CRM from API Server
CData API Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.
- Open API Server and click Settings -> Connection -> Add Connection
- Select "Act CRM"
- Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Act CRM.
The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid Act! user credentials. In addition to the authentication values, see the following:
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Connecting to Act! Premium
In addition to the authentication values, the URL to Act! is also required; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/.
Additionally, you must specify the ActDatabase you will connect to. This is found by going to the About Act! Premium menu of your account, at the top right of the page, in the ? menu. Use the Database Name in the window that appears.
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Connecting to Act! Premium Cloud
To connect to your Act! Premium Cloud account, you also need to specify the ActCloudName property. This property is found in the URL address of the Cloud account; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/ActCloudName/.
Note that retrieving ActCRM metadata can be expensive. It is advised that you set the CacheMetadata property to store the metadata locally.
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Add Act CRM Resource Definitions in API Server
After connecting to Act CRM, create Resources, which represent API endpoints for Act CRM data.
- Click Settings -> Resources -> Add Resource
- Select the Act CRM connection
- Select the table you wish to retrieve and click Next
- (Optional) Edit the resource to select specific fields and more
- Save the settings
Add an API Server User
Create a User to connect to Act CRM from Reveal through API Server.
- Click Settings -> Users
- Click Add
- Configure a User with access to the Act CRM Connection and Resource(s)
(Optional) Configure Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)
When accessing and connecting to multiple different domains from an application such as Ajax, there is a possibility of violating the limitations of cross-site scripting. In that case, configure the CORS settings in Settings -> Server.
- Enable cross-origin resource sharing (CORS): ON
- Allow all domains without '*': ON
- Access-Control-Allow-Methods: GET, PUT, POST, OPTIONS
- Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Authorization
Save the changes to the settings.
Create a Dashboard in Reveal
With the API Server configured, we can visualize Act CRM data in Reveal.
- Log into Reveal and click Dashboards -> New
- Click Data Source -> OData Feed
- Specify the API Server API endpoint URL, for example: https://serverurl/api.rsc
- Select Generic Credentials and specify the API Server username and authentication token
- Select the entity you wish to visualize
- Select fields and choose a chart type
More Information & Free Trial
At this point, you have created a simple dashboard from live Act CRM data. For more information on creating OData feeds from Act CRM (and more than 150 other sources), visit the API Server page. Download a free, 30-day trial and start working live Act CRM data in tools that consume OData APIs.
