Create Clio Dashboards in Bold BI

Bold BI allows you to create, share, and collaborate on interactive BI dashboards. When paired with CData Connect Server, you get instant access to Clio data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for Clio and build reports from Clio data in Bold BI.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for Clio, allowing you to easily build reports from live Clio data in Bold BI — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. As you build visualizations, Bold BI generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Server pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Clio, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested Clio data.

Create a Virtual SQL Server Database for Clio Data

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

1. Login to Connect Server and click Connections.
2. Select "Clio" from Available Data Sources.
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Clio.

   Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the Clio Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\Clio.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Clio (see below).

   Clio API Profile Settings

   Clio uses OAuth-based authentication.

   First, register an OAuth application with Clio. You can do so by logging to your Developer Account and clicking the Add button. Enter details and select the scope of your application here - these details will be shown to Clio users when they're asked to authorize your application. Your Oauth application will be assigned a client id (key) and a client secret (secret). Additionally you will need to set the Region in ProfileSettings connection property.

   After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

   • AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
   • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to manage the process to obtain the OAuthAccessToken.
   • OAuthClientId: Set this to the client_id that is specified in you app settings.
   • OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client_secret that is specified in you app settings.
   • CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI that is specified in your app settings.
   • Region: Set this in ProfileSettings to your Clio geographic region. Defaults to app.clio.com.
4. Click Save Changes
5. Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions.

With the virtual database created, you are ready to connect to Clio data from Bold BI.

Visualize Live Clio Data in Bold BI

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Server from Bold BI to create a new Clio data source and build a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into your Bold BI instance, click the data sources tab, create a new data source, and choose the SQL Server connector.
2. Choose the basic configuration and set the connection properties:
   • Name: Name your connection
   • Server name: Your Connect Server instance (CONNECT_SERVER_URL)
   • Port: 1433
   • Username: Your Connect Server username
   • Password: Your Connect Server password
   • Mode: Choose Live to query Clio on-demand or choose Extract to load the data into Bold BI
   • Database: Choose the database you created from the drop-down menu (cliodb)
3. Click Connect
4. Select the table to visualize and drag it onto the workspace.
5. Select a visualization style and add it to the report.
6. Click the gear icon for the visualization to configure the visualization properties and assign columns to the visualization.

SQL Access to Clio Data from Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live Clio data from your Bold BI workbook. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Clio data.

To get SQL data access to 200+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your applications, see the CData Connect page.