Model Context Protocol (MCP) finally gives AI models a way to access the business data needed to make them really useful at work. CData MCP Servers have the depth and performance to make sure AI has access to all of the answers.
Try them now for free →
Analyze Gmail Data in Infragistics Reveal
Use the CData API Server to create an OData API on top of Gmail data and visualize live Gmail data in Ingragistics Reveal.
Reveal is a data visualization solution provided by Infragistics and can be paired with the CData API Server and Gmail ADO.NET Provider to build dynamic dashboards from live Gmail data. The CData API Server generates an OData API for Gmail, which is natively consumable in Reveal. In this article, we walk through connecting to Gmail in API Server and connecting to the API Server from Infragistics Reveal to create a simple dashboard.
Connect to Gmail 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 "Gmail"
- Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Gmail.
There are two ways to authenticate to Gmail. Before selecting one, first ensure that you have enabled IMAP access in your Gmail account settings. See the "Connecting to Gmail" section under "Getting Started" in the installed documentation for a guide.
The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, can be set to valid Gmail user credentials.
Alternatively, instead of providing the Password, you can use the OAuth authentication standard. To access Google APIs on behalf on individual users, you can use the embedded credentials or you can register your own OAuth app.
OAuth also enables you to use a service account to connect on behalf of users in a Google Apps domain. To authenticate with a service account, register an application to obtain the OAuth JWT values.
In addition to the OAuth values, provide the User. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.
Add Gmail Resource Definitions in API Server
After connecting to Gmail, create Resources, which represent API endpoints for Gmail data.
- Click Settings -> Resources -> Add Resource
- Select the Gmail 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 Gmail from Reveal through API Server.
- Click Settings -> Users
- Click Add
- Configure a User with access to the Gmail 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 Gmail 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 Gmail data. For more information on creating OData feeds from Gmail (and more than 150 other sources), visit the API Server page. Download a free, 30-day trial and start working live Gmail data in tools that consume OData APIs.
