Create CSV 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 CSV data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for CSV and build reports from CSV data in Bold BI.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for CSV, allowing you to easily build reports from live CSV 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 CSV, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested CSV data.

Create a Virtual SQL Server Database for CSV 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 "CSV" from Available Data Sources.
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to CSV.

   The DataSource property must be set to a valid local folder name.

   Also, specify the IncludeFiles property to work with text files having extensions that differ from .csv, .tab, or .txt. Specify multiple file extensions in a comma-separated list. You can also set Extended Properties compatible with the Microsoft Jet OLE DB 4.0 driver. Alternatively, you can provide the format of text files in a Schema.ini file.

   Set UseRowNumbers to true if you are deleting or updating in CSV. This will create a new column with the name RowNumber which will be used as key for that table.

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 CSV data from Bold BI.

Visualize Live CSV Data in Bold BI

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Server from Bold BI to create a new CSV 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 CSV on-demand or choose Extract to load the data into Bold BI
   • Database: Choose the database you created from the drop-down menu (csvdb)
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 CSV Data from Applications

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

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