Create Sage 200 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 Sage 200 data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for Sage 200 and build reports from Sage 200 data in Bold BI.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for Sage 200, allowing you to easily build reports from live Sage 200 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 Sage 200, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested Sage 200 data.

Create a Virtual SQL Server Database for Sage 200 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 "Sage 200" from Available Data Sources.
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Sage 200.
   • Schema: Determines which Sage 200 edition you are connecting to. Specify either StandardUK or ProfessionalUK.
   • Subscription Key: Provides access to the APIs that are used to establish a connection. You will first need to log into the Sage 200 API website and subscribe to the API edition that matches your account. You can do so here: https://developer.columbus.sage.com/docs/services/api/uk. Afterwards, the subscription key may be found in your profile after logging into Sage 200.
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 Sage 200 data from Bold BI.

Visualize Live Sage 200 Data in Bold BI

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Server from Bold BI to create a new Sage 200 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 Sage 200 on-demand or choose Extract to load the data into Bold BI
   • Database: Choose the database you created from the drop-down menu (sage200db)
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 Sage 200 Data from Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live Sage 200 data from your Bold BI workbook. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Sage 200 data.

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