Analyze SuiteCRM Data in Infragistics Reveal

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

Connect to SuiteCRM 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 "SuiteCRM"
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SuiteCRM.

   The User and Password properties must be set to valid SuiteCRM user credentials. Additionally, specify the URL to the SuiteCRM application, for example http://suite.crm.com.

   Note that retrieving SuiteCRM metadata can be expensive. It is advised that you store the metadata locally as described in the Caching Metadata section of the data provider help documentation.

   

Add SuiteCRM Resource Definitions in API Server

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

1. Click Settings -> Resources -> Add Resource
2. Select the SuiteCRM 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 SuiteCRM from Reveal through API Server.

1. Click Settings -> Users
2. Click Add
3. Configure a User with access to the SuiteCRM 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 SuiteCRM 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 SuiteCRM data. For more information on creating OData feeds from SuiteCRM (and more than 150 other sources), visit the API Server page. Download a free, 30-day trial and start working live SuiteCRM data in tools that consume OData APIs.