Connect to Cvent in SpagoBI



Create reports featuring live Cvent data in SpagoBI Studio. Host Cvent reports on SpagoBI Server.

The CData JDBC Driver for Cvent enables you to connect to live Cvent data from business intelligence and data mining tools that support the JDBC standard. This article shows how to integrate Cvent data into a report in SpagoBI Studio and host it on SpagoBI Server.

Deploy the JDBC Driver in SpagoBI Server

Follow the steps to create a JDBC data source for Cvent in SpagoBI Server.

  1. Copy the driver JAR into %CATALINA_BASE%/lib. These files are located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
  2. Add a Cvent driver resource to the context. The following resource definition can be added to the GlobalNamingResources element in server.xml: <Resource name="jdbc/cvent" auth="Container" type="javax.sql.DataSource" driverclassname="cdata.jdbc.cvent.CventDriver" factory="org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.DataSourceFactory" maxactive="20" maxidle="10" maxwait="-1"/>

  3. Add the following resource link to give access to Web applications. For this article, add the following line to META-INF\context.xml for SpagoBI. <ResourceLink global="jdbc/cvent" name="jdbc/cvent" type="javax.sql.DataSource"/>
  4. Restart the server.

After adding the driver to the resources for the SpagoBI server, add the data source: In SpagoBI, click Resources -> Data Source -> Add and enter the following information:

  • Label: Enter a unique identifier for the driver.
  • Description: Enter a description for the driver.
  • Dialect: Select Default Dialect.
  • Read Only: Select the read-only option. This option determines whether the data source is the default database to save datasets created by the end user.
  • Type: Select JDBC.
  • URL: Enter the JDBC URL using the required connection string properties:

    Before you can authenticate to Cvent, you must create a workspace and an OAuth application.

    Creating a Workspace

    To create a workspace:

    1. Sign into Cvent and navigate to App Switcher (the blue button in the upper right corner of the page) >> Admin.
    2. In the Admin menu, navigate to Integrations >> REST API.
    3. A new tab launches for Developer Management. Click on Manage API Access in the new tab.
    4. Create a Workspace and name it. Select the scopes you would like your developers to have access to. Scopes control what data domains the developer can access.
      • Choose All to allow developers to choose any scope, and any future scopes added to the REST API.
      • Choose Custom to limit the scopes developers can choose for their OAuth apps to selected scopes. To access all tables exposed by the driver, you need to set the following scopes:
        event/attendees:readevent/attendees:writeevent/contacts:read
        event/contacts:writeevent/custom-fields:readevent/custom-fields:write
        event/events:readevent/events:writeevent/sessions:delete
        event/sessions:readevent/sessions:writeevent/speakers:delete
        event/speakers:readevent/speakers:writebudget/budget-items:read
        budget/budget-items:writeexhibitor/exhibitors:readexhibitor/exhibitors:write
        survey/surveys:readsurvey/surveys:write

    Creating an OAuth Application

    After you have set up a Workspace and invited them, developers can sign up and create a custom OAuth app. See the Creating a Custom OAuth Application section in the Help documentation for more information.

    Connecting to Cvent

    After creating an OAuth application, set the following connection properties to connect to Cvent:

    • InitiateOAuth: GETANDREFRESH. Used to automatically get and refresh the OAuthAccessToken.
    • OAuthClientId: The Client ID associated with the OAuth application. You can find this on the Applications page in the Cvent Developer Portal.
    • OAuthClientSecret: The Client secret associated with the OAuth application. You can find this on the Applications page in the Cvent Developer Portal.

    Built-in Connection String Designer

    For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Cvent JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

    java -jar cdata.jdbc.cvent.jar

    Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

    A typical JDBC URL is below:

    jdbc:cvent:OAuthClientId=MyOAuthClientId;OAuthClientSecret=MyOAuthClientSecret;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
  • Driver: Enter the class name for the driver: cdata.jdbc.cvent.CventDriver

Create Reports in SpagoBI Studio

Follow the steps below to populate reports based on Cvent data in SpagoBI Studio. You will create a dataset that populates a chart with the results of an SQL query. In the next section, you will host this report on SpagoBI Server.

First, you will need to connect to Cvent data from a report in SpagoBI Studio:

  1. In SpagoBI Studio, click File -> New -> Project and select Report Project in the Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools folder.
  2. Click File -> New -> Report and select Blank Report.
  3. In the Data Explorer view, right-click Data Sources and click New Data Source.
  4. Select JDBC Data Source and enter a name for the data source.
  5. Click Manage Drivers and click Add to add the driver JAR, cdata.jdbc.cvent.jar. The driver JAR is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
  6. In the Driver Class menu, select the driver class, cdata.jdbc.cvent.CventDriver.
  7. In the Database URL box, enter the JDBC URL. A typical JDBC URL is below: jdbc:cvent:OAuthClientId=MyOAuthClientId;OAuthClientSecret=MyOAuthClientSecret;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH See the "Getting Started" chapter of the driver help for a guide to obtaining the required connection properties.

After you have connected to Cvent data, create a dataset that contains the results of an SQL query:

  1. Right-click the DataSet folder and click New Data Set. Select the JDBC data source for Cvent and enter a name for the dataset.
  2. Build the SQL query. In this example, this query will be used to add a chart to the dashboard. For example: SELECT Id, Title FROM Events WHERE Virtual = 'true'

You can use the dataset to populate report objects. Follow the steps below to create a chart.

  1. In the Palette view, drag a chart onto the canvas.
  2. In the Select Chart Type tab, select a bar chart.
  3. In the Select Data tab, click the Use Data From option and select the Cvent data set from the menu.
  4. Drag Id from the table to the series for the x-axis.
  5. Drag Title from the table to the series for the y-axis.

Host Cvent Reports on SpagoBI Server

Follow the steps below to host documents based on live Cvent data on SpagoBI Server. You will use the report you created in the previous section as a template. To enable report users to access the live data, create placeholder parameters to be replaced by the Cvent JDBC data source on the server:

  1. If you have not already done so, open the Report Design perspective in SpagoBI Studio.
  2. In the Data Explorer view, right-click the Report Parameters folder and click New Parameter. Add the url parameter and assign an empty value to it. This parameter is a placeholder for the JDBC data source on the SpagoBI Server.
  3. Right-click the Cvent data source and click Edit.
  4. In the Property Binding node, set the JDBC Driver URL binding property to the url parameter: Click the box for the property. In the Category section, select Report Parameters. Select All in the Subcategory section and double-click the parameter.

    You can also enter the following in the JavaScript syntax:

    params["url"].value

Next, create a new document for the report on SpagoBI Server.

  1. In SpagoBI Server, click Documents Development -> Create Document -> Generic Document. The Document Details page is displayed.
  2. To create the document, enter the following:
    • Label: Enter a unique identifier for the document.
    • Name: Enter a user-friendly name for the document.
    • Type: Select Report from the menu.
    • Engine: Select BIRT Report Engine.
    • Data Source: Select the Cvent Data Source you created in Create a JDBC Data Source for Cvent in SpagoBI Server.
  3. In the Show Document Templates section, select the folder where you want the document to be stored.
  4. In the Template section, click Choose File. Navigate to the folder containing your report project. Select the .rptdesign file.

    Note: You can find the path to the project in the project properties.

  5. Click the Save button.

When you run the report on the server, the placeholder url parameter is replaced with the JDBC URL defined on the server.

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the Cvent Driver to get started:

 Download Now

Learn more:

Cvent Icon Cvent JDBC Driver

Rapidly create and deploy powerful Java applications that integrate with Cvent.