Create Apps from Act CRM Data in Qlik Sense Cloud

Qlik Sense Cloud allows you to create and share data visualizations and interact with information in new ways. CData Connect Cloud creates a live connection to Act CRM. By pairing Qlik Sense Cloud with CData Connect Cloud, you get true cloud-to-cloud connectivity to all of your SaaS and cloud-based Big Data and NoSQL sources — no need to migrate your data or write your integrations. Simply connect to Connect Cloud from Qlik Sense Cloud and get instant, live access to your Act CRM data.

In this article, we walk through two connections:

1. Connecting to Act CRM in Connect Cloud
2. Connecting to Connect Cloud from Qlik Sense Cloud to create a model and build a simple dashboard

Configure Act CRM Connectivity for Qlik Cloud

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

(Optional) Add a New Connect Cloud User

As needed, create Users to connect to Act CRM through Connect Cloud.

1. Navigate to the Users page and click Invite Users
2. Enter the new user's email address and click Send to invite the user
3. You can review and edit users from the Users page

Add a Personal Access Token

If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication to the CData Connect Cloud OData service. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
2. On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give your 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.

Connect to Act CRM from Connect Cloud

CData Connect Cloud uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

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

   The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid Act! user credentials. In addition to the authentication values, see the following:

   • Connecting to Act! Premium

     In addition to the authentication values, the URL to Act! is also required; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/.

     Additionally, you must specify the ActDatabase you will connect to. This is found by going to the About Act! Premium menu of your account, at the top right of the page, in the ? menu. Use the Database Name in the window that appears.

   • Connecting to Act! Premium Cloud

     To connect to your Act! Premium Cloud account, you also need to specify the ActCloudName property. This property is found in the URL address of the Cloud account; for example https://eup1-iis-04.eu.hosted.act.com/ActCloudName/.

   Note that retrieving ActCRM metadata can be expensive. It is advised that you set the CacheMetadata property to store the metadata locally.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Act CRM Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

With the connection to Act CRM configured, you are ready to connect to Act CRM data from Qlik Sense Cloud.

Create a Qlik Sense App from Act CRM Data

This section walks through adding Act CRM data to a Qlik Sense app for visualizations, analytics, reporting, and more.

Create a New App and Upload Data

1. Log into your Qlik Sense instance and click the button to create a new app
2. Name and configure the new app and click "Create"
3. In the workspace, click to open the new app
4. Click to add data from files and other sources
5. Select the Microsoft SQL Server connector and set the configuration properties.
   • Set Server to tds.cdata.com
   • Set Port to 14333
   • Set Database to the connection you created (e.g. ActCRM1)
   • Set User name to the Connect Cloud user (e.g. user@mydomain.com)
   • Set Password to the PAT for the above user
6. Select an owner for the connection
7. Select a Act CRM entity (Table) to view
8. Click Next, configure the model, and load the data into Qlik Sense.

Generate Insights or Customize Your App

With the data loaded into Qlik Sense, you are ready to begin discovering insights. You can build custom visualizations, reports, and dashboards engineered to gain actionable insights into your Act CRM data.

More Information & Free Trial

Now, you have created a simple but powerful dashboard from live Act CRM data. For more information on creating OData feeds from Act CRM (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect Cloud page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live Act CRM data in Qlik Sense Cloud.