Create Active Directory-Connected Applications in Appsmith

Appsmith is an open-source internal tool builder that allows teams to quickly and easily build a UI to help improve their business operations. When combined with CData Connect Cloud, you gain immediate access to Active Directory data for business applications. This article outlines the process of connecting to Active Directory using Connect Cloud and creating a basic application from Active Directory data within Appsmith.

CData Connect Cloud offers a pure SQL Server, cloud-to-cloud interface for Active Directory, enabling the creation of business applications directly from live Active Directory data within Appsmith, all without the need for data replication to a native database. As you build applications, Appsmith generates SQL queries to gather data. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect Cloud efficiently channels all supported SQL operations, including filters and JOINs, directly to Active Directory. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly deliver the requested Active Directory data.

Configure Active Directory Connectivity for Appsmith

Connectivity to Active Directory from Appsmith is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Active Directory data from Appsmith, we start by creating and configuring a Active Directory connection.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "Active Directory" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Active Directory.

   To establish a connection, set the following properties:

   • Valid User and Password credentials (e.g., Domain\BobF or cn=Bob F,ou=Employees,dc=Domain).
   • Server information, including the IP or host name of the Server, as well as the Port.

   • BaseDN: This will limit the scope of LDAP searches to the height of the distinguished name provided.

     Note: Specifying a narrow BaseDN may greatly increase performance; for example, cn=users,dc=domain will only return results contained within cn=users and its children.

   
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Active Directory 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, we are ready to connect to Active Directory data from Appsmith.

Create an Appsmith Application from live Active Directory Data

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

Connect to Active Directory in Appsmith

1. Log in to your Appsmith instance and create a new application.
2. In the new application, open the Data page and select Bring your data.
3. On this page, you can search for Microsoft SQL Server and select it as your data source.
4. Enter a name for the new data source and then enter the following connection settings:
   • Host address: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: 14333
   • Database name: enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect Cloud data source you want to connect to (for example, ActiveDirectory1).
   • Username: enter your CData Connect Cloud username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect Cloud interface. For example, test@cdata.com.
   • Password: enter the PAT you previously generated.
   
5. Click Test configuration to confirm a successful connection, then click Save to save the datasource.

Create a new query

With a connection configured to a datasource, we can add a SQL query to actually retrieve data from the data source.

1. On the screen with the new data source, click New Query.
2. This opens the Query Editor to enter a SQL query to select data. To assist with specifying a SQL query, use the Explorer of CData Connect Cloud to preview the SQL queries and the data you want to retrieve.
3. After creating the SQL query, return to the Query Editor in Appsmith and enter the SQL query, then click Run.
4. Once the query successfully runs, all that remains is to set up the Page to display the data retrieved.

Display Active Directory data

1. Open the UI tab and click New UI element.
2. Choose a new UI element to grab, then drag and place the element on the page.
3. Click Connect data on the new UI element, then select the query previously created.
4. With the data connected, it is then displayed in the UI element.

Deploy the application

With the Active Directory data connected to the UI elements in the application, we can deploy the Application. To do this, click Deploy in the top-right corner of Appsmith, then the application is opened in a seperate window displaying the Active Directory data.

Get CData Connect Cloud

To get live data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, try CData Connect Cloud today!