Harnessing CData Cloud to Visualize Elasticsearch Data in Bold BI
If you’ve been using Bold BI, you’re probably familiar with our CData Connect Cloud data source, which was previously only connectable using a MySQL endpoint.
Now, you can connect it using a newly added SQL Server endpoint. The CData cloud connector allows you to connect with numerous data sources, enhancing your data analytics capabilities. In this blog, we’re going to focus on a specific data source- Elasticsearch, which is a popular, distributed, RESTful search and analytics engine. We’ll guide you step-by-step on how to connect this data source with Bold BI via the CData Connect Cloud, specifically through the Virtual SQL Server endpoint and create a dashboard with sample data from Elasticsearch. A detailed guide on integrating this connector with Bold BI can be found in this blog post.
The benefits of connecting Bold BI to Elasticsearch data
Visualizing Elasticsearch data in Bold BI offers a multitude of benefits that empower organizations to derive insights and make informed decisions. The following are some of the benefits of connecting and visualizing Elasticsearch data in Bold BI.
- Enhanced Insights: Bold BI’s visualizations transform your Elasticsearch raw data into compelling charts and graphs in dashboards, enabling users to quickly grasp trends, patterns, and correlations, thereby facilitating deeper insights into their data.
- Effective Communication: Visual representations simplify your complex Elasticsearch data, making it easier to convey information to stakeholders, teams, and decision-makers, fostering better understanding and alignment.
- Quick Decision-Making: Interactive and real-time visualizations in Bold BI enable users to make swift decisions based on up-to-date information from their Elasticsearch data, allowing for agile responses to changing scenarios.
- Identifying Opportunities and Challenges: Data visualizations highlight opportunities for growth and potential challenges, enabling organizations to capitalize on strengths and mitigate weaknesses effectively.
- Employee Engagement: Interactive dashboards in Bold BI engage employees by enabling them to explore Elasticsearch data and customize their view of it without a lot of technical training, leading to increased employee adoption of analytics in their workflows.
In essence, Bold BI’s data visualization capabilities empower organizations to unlock the true potential of their data, enabling strategic growth.
Deploying and accessing data in Elasticsearch
To deploy and access data in Elasticsearch, follow these steps:
- Log into your Elasticsearch account in the Elastic Cloud. After you have logged in, you will be directed to a page, as shown in the following image. Click Create Deployment.
2. Provide a valid name for your deployment. Next, click the Create Deployment tab and download the password for the Elastic user.
3. Next, input the copied endpoint and downloaded password when prompted to authenticate your account. Be sure to keep your Elastic user password safe for future use.
4. With your system fully operational, it’s time to bring sample data into your Elasticsearch account. Click on the Upload a file option, which you can see in your created deployment.
5. Next, you will be presented with several options for different types of sample data. Choose the one you want and click Add. Data will then be loaded into your account. After this, we can start to connect the data in Bold BI via the CData Connect Cloud.
Refer to this help documentation for more details on how to deploy and access data in Elasticsearch.
Now, let’s see how we can create a virtual SQL Server database for Elasticsearch data in CData Connect Cloud.
Creating a Virtual SQL Server database for Elasticsearch data
In your CData Connect Cloud, click the Elasticsearch data source.
In the Settings tab, input the required authentication details for the Elasticsearch connection. Configure the Server Name and Port connection properties to establish the connection. For authentication, set the User and Password properties. Click Save & Test to save the created database and maintain connectivity.
Once the connection authentication is established, you will receive a ‘Success!’ message in Connect Cloud.
The created database will be listed under Connections like the following.
Once you’ve saved the Elasticsearch virtual database, you are ready to connect to Bold BI with the SQL Server endpoint.
Now, we are going to create ElasticSearch data source via CData connect cloud in Bold BI.
Creating Elasticsearch data source via CData Connect Cloud in Bold BI
To create an Elasticsearch data source through CData, select CData from the data source listing panel.
The NEW DATA SOURCE configuration panel opens, as shown. Choose the SQL Server in the Database Engine combo box and fill in the required details. Then, click Connect to connect with the configuration set.
Next, drag and drop the table. Save the data source.
The created data source will be added to the DATA SOURCES panel.
Creating a dashboard with Elasticsearch data
Now, let’s visualize the key sales metrics with Elasticsearch analytics data using a Bold BI dashboard through a CData connection. We can create a dashboard from scratch by dragging widgets into the Dashboard Designer. Using the Elasticsearch E-commerce Sales Dashboard we make, users can gain real-time tracking and analysis of sales data.
This dashboard focuses on providing real-time data and insights about sales performance, customer behavior, and website traffic. It allows businesses to track and analyze the following KPIs:
- Total purchases
- Average order value
- Average page render time
- Page view
- Transaction
- Abandoned carts
- Abandoned revenue
- Product sold breakdown
- Sales by channel
- Sales forecast
- Sales by payment type and browser
Finally, the dashboard is complete and ready for use. You can easily share the Elasticsearch E-commerce Sales Dashboard with your customer support team by granting them access permissions. To do this, copy the URL from the browser’s address bar and share it with them. Check this overview for more details on sharing dashboards.
Now that you know how to connect Elasticsearch data with Bold BI via CData Connect Cloud through the Virtual SQL Server endpoint, you can connect all available data sources in the same manner with both MySQl and SQL Server endpoints. To learn more about connecting CData data sources with Bold BI, check out this link. You can follow the steps provided in this link to connect your Elasticsearch data directly in Bold BI.
I hope this blog improved your understanding of connecting with Elasticsearch using the CData data source. Thank you for reading and please feel free to leave any comments or questions in the comment section below.
Originally published at https://www.boldbi.com on September 26, 2023.
