Visualize Sugar CRM Data in Sisense

Sisense lets you join, analyze, and picture data to make more intelligent business decisions and craft effective strategies. The CData JDBC Driver for Sugar makes it easy to integrate with Sugar CRM data in Sisense. This article shows how to create an ElastiCube that connects to Sugar CRM data and use the ElastiCube to visualize Sugar CRM data in Sisense.

Configure the Connection to Sugar CRM

Before creating the ElastiCube, note the installation location for the JAR file for the JDBC Driver (typically C:\Program Files\CData\CData JDBC Driver for Sugar 20XX\lib) or copy the jar file (cdata.jdbc.sugarcrm.SugarCRM.jar) to a new folder in the Sisense JDBC driver directory (typically C:\ProgramData\Sisense\DataConnectors\jdbcdrivers).

1. In the Data page of the Sisense application, create a new ElastiCube (or open an existing one).
2. In the Model Editor, click "+ Data" to open the Add Data dialog box.
3. Click Generic JDBC to open the JDBC settings.
4. Set the connection string property to the JDBC URL for Sugar CRM, adding required properties.

   The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid SugarCRM user credentials. This will use the default OAuth token created to allow client logins. OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret are required if you do not wish to use the default OAuth token.

   You can generate a new OAuth consumer key and consumer secret in Admin -> OAuth Keys. Set the OAuthClientId to the OAuth consumer key. Set the OAuthClientSecret to the consumer secret.

   Additionally, specify the URL to the SugarCRM account.

   Note that retrieving SugarCRM metadata can be expensive. It is advised that you store the metadata locally as described in the "Caching Metadata" chapter of the help documentation.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.sugarcrm.jar

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

   When you configure the JDBC URL, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

   A typical example follows:

   jdbc:sugarcrm:User=MyUser;Password=MyPassword;URL=MySugarCRMAccountURL;CacheMetadata=True;
5. Set the JDBC JARs folder property to the location of the CData JDBC Driver JAR file (see above).
6. Set the driver's class name to the class name for the JDBC Driver: cdata.jdbc.sugarcrm.SugarCRMDriver
7. Leave the username and password properties blank.
8. Click Next.

Add Sugar CRM Data to an ElastiCube

Once you are connected to Sugar CRM, you can add tables and views to your ElastiCubes.

1. From the Tables list, select the tables and/or views you wish to work with.
2. (Optional) Click "+" to customize the data you want to import with SQL.
3. Click Done.
4. Click Build to build the ElastiCube for analytics.

Visualize Sugar CRM Data

With Sugar CRM tables added to your ElastiCube, you can perform analytics on your Sugar CRM data.

1. Navigate to the Analytics page of the Sisense application
2. Select a Dashboard (or create a new one)
3. Select your Data Source and click Create
4. Click "+ Select Data" and choose fields to add to your visualization.

With the CData JDBC Driver for Sugar, you can access Sugar CRM data right in Sisense for powerful visualization and analytics. Download a free, 30-day trial and start working with Sugar CRM data in Sisense today!