Create Neo4J 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 Neo4J data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for Neo4J and build reports from Neo4J data in Bold BI.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for Neo4J, allowing you to easily build reports from live Neo4J 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 Neo4J, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested Neo4J data.

Create a Virtual SQL Server Database for Neo4J 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 "Neo4J" from Available Data Sources.
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Neo4J.

   To connect to Neo4j, set the following connection properties:

   • Server: The server hosting the Neo4j instance.
   • Port: The port on which the Neo4j service is running. The provider connects to port 7474 by default.
   • User: The username of the user using the Neo4j instance.
   • Password: The password of the user using the Neo4j instance.
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 Neo4J data from Bold BI.

Visualize Live Neo4J Data in Bold BI

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Server from Bold BI to create a new Neo4J 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 Neo4J on-demand or choose Extract to load the data into Bold BI
   • Database: Choose the database you created from the drop-down menu (neo4jdb)
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 Neo4J Data from Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live Neo4J data from your Bold BI workbook. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Neo4J data.

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