Analyze Dynamics GP Data in Infragistics Reveal

Reveal is a data visualization solution provided by Infragistics and can be paired with the CData API Server and Dynamics GP ADO.NET Provider to build dynamic dashboards from live Dynamics GP data. The CData API Server generates an OData API for Dynamics GP, which is natively consumable in Reveal. In this article, we walk through connecting to Dynamics GP in API Server and connecting to the API Server from Infragistics Reveal to create a simple dashboard.

Connect to Dynamics GP from API Server

CData API Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.

1. Open API Server and click Settings -> Connection -> Add Connection
2. Select "Dynamics GP"
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Dynamics GP.

   To authenticate set the User and Password connection properties.

   To connect set the URL to the Web services endpoint; for example, http://{servername}:{port}/Dynamics/GPService. Additionally, set CompanyId; you can obtain this value in the company setup window: Click Tools -> Setup -> Company.

   By default, data summaries are not returned to save performance. Set LookupIds to true to return details such as line items; however, note that entities must be retrieved one at a time.

   

Add Dynamics GP Resource Definitions in API Server

After connecting to Dynamics GP, create Resources, which represent API endpoints for Dynamics GP data.

1. Click Settings -> Resources -> Add Resource
2. Select the Dynamics GP connection
3. Select the table you wish to retrieve and click Next
4. (Optional) Edit the resource to select specific fields and more
5. Save the settings

Add an API Server User

Create a User to connect to Dynamics GP from Reveal through API Server.

1. Click Settings -> Users
2. Click Add
3. Configure a User with access to the Dynamics GP 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 Dynamics GP data in Reveal.

1. Log into Reveal and click Dashboards -> New
2. Click Data Source -> OData Feed
3. Specify the API Server API endpoint URL, for example: https://serverurl/api.rsc
4. Select Generic Credentials and specify the API Server username and authentication token
5. Select the entity you wish to visualize
6. Select fields and choose a chart type

More Information & Free Trial

At this point, you have created a simple dashboard from live Dynamics GP data. For more information on creating OData feeds from Dynamics GP (and more than 150 other sources), visit the API Server page. Download a free, 30-day trial and start working live Dynamics GP data in tools that consume OData APIs.