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

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

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

   In order to connect to Zoho Inventory, set the following connection properties:

   • OrganizationId: set this to the ID associated with your specific Zoho Inventory organization
   • InitiateOAuth: set the to "GETANDREFRESH"
   • AccountsServer (Optional): set this full Account Server URL (only when manually refreshing the OAuth token)

   The connectors use OAuth to authenticate with Zoho Inventory. For more information, refer to the Getting Started section of the Help documentation.

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 Zoho Inventory data from Bold BI.

Visualize Live Zoho Inventory Data in Bold BI

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

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

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