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Access Sugar CRM Data as OData Feeds in Tableau
Use the Tableau Desktop business intelligence tool to connect to Sugar CRM data using the API Server.
The CData API Server, when paired with the ADO.NET Provider for Sugar CRM (or any of 200+ other ADO.NET Providers), provides Sugar CRM data as OData Web services. This article will explain how to use the API Server to provide the underlying connectivity to Sugar CRM data in Tableau's business intelligence tool.
Set Up the API Server
Follow the steps below to begin producing secure Sugar CRM OData services:
Deploy
The API Server runs on your own server. On Windows, you can deploy using the stand-alone server or IIS. On a Java servlet container, drop in the API Server WAR file. See the help documentation for more information and how-tos.
The API Server is also easy to deploy on Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2, and Heroku.
Connect to Sugar CRM
After you deploy the API Server and the ADO.NET Provider for Sugar CRM, provide authentication values and other connection properties needed to connect to Sugar CRM by clicking Settings -> Connections and adding a new connection in the API Server administration console.
The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid SugarCRM user credentials. This will use the default OAuth token created to allow client logins. OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret are required if you do not wish to use the default OAuth token.
You can generate a new OAuth consumer key and consumer secret in Admin -> OAuth Keys. Set the OAuthClientId to the OAuth consumer key. Set the OAuthClientSecret to the consumer secret.
Additionally, specify the URL to the SugarCRM account.
Note that retrieving SugarCRM metadata can be expensive. It is advised that you store the metadata locally as described in the "Caching Metadata" chapter of the help documentation.
When you configure the connection, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.
You can then choose the Sugar CRM entities you want to allow the API Server to access by clicking Settings -> Resources.
Additionally, click Settings -> Server and set the Default Format to XML (Atom) for compatibility with Tableau.
Authorize API Server Users
After determining the OData services you want to produce, authorize users by clicking Settings -> Users. The API Server uses authtoken-based authentication and supports the major authentication schemes. Access can also be restricted based on IP address; by default only connections to the local machine are allowed. You can authenticate as well as encrypt connections with SSL.
Create Real-Time Sugar CRM Data Visualizations
Follow the steps below to create data visualizations based on the remote Sugar CRM data:
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In Tableau, select 'Connect to data'. In the 'On a server' section, click OData.
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In the resulting wizard, enter the URL of the OData endpoint for the API Server. Append the name of the table you want to access to the OData entry URL. For example:
https://your-server/api.rsc/Accounts -
Select the
'Use a Username and Password' option and enter the username and password of a user who has access to the API Server.
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Tableau uses the table metadata exposed by the API Server to detect dimension and measure columns.
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To view the Sugar CRM data, right-click under the table name in the Data section of the dashboard and select the View Data option. The Sugar CRM data will appear in Tableau.
