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

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

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

   Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the Zenefits Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\Zenefits.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Zenefits (see below).

   Zenefits API Profile Settings

   In order to authenticate to Zenefits, you'll need to provide your API Key. To create an API Key, from your account head over to Company Overview > Custom Integrations, then besides Rest API Access select Add Token. Set the API Key in the ProfileSettings property to connect.

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 Zenefits data from Bold BI.

Visualize Live Zenefits Data in Bold BI

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

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

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