Manage Data Source Connections

This section explains how to share data sources, manage the version history of data sources, and delete them in Bold BI.

Data sources that are accessible by the user, depending on the user’s permission, are displayed on the data sources page.

There are two categories available for data sources:

• Advanced
• Basic

Advanced Category

We are currently transitioning our extract mode connectors to Bold ETL, an advanced ETL solution. This change is aimed at enhancing the user experience when creating data sources in extract mode. The new system offers various features such as scheduling, incremental data refresh, and data transformation. Additionally, Bold ETL supports Apache Doris as a destination data store, known for its high performance and ability to enable real-time data analytics with columnar storage. Currently, only a few connectors are available in this new format, but we plan to migrate all extract mode connectors from Bold BI to Bold ETL in the near future.

Basic Category (Original Bold BI Connectors)

If you are familiar with the existing Bold BI connectors, you can continue using them, now classified as Basic. However, if you work with large datasets, we recommend trying out the Advanced Bold ETL-based connectors for a more efficient experience.

Important Note

This update will not affect your current connectors. You can continue using them as you have been. The introduction of Bold ETL-based connectors is an additional option designed to offer a better and more advanced experience.

There are two connection types available in Data Source:

• Live mode
• Extract mode

Live mode connection

In this connection type, data sources are directly fetched from the source, examples include MySQL, Oracle, etc.

Extract mode connection

In this connection type, data sources are fetched from the source periodically, examples include CSV, JSON, etc.

Users can see the data source refresh status and the number of occupied data rows count on this page.

Check the connectivity section for more details.

Refresh Setting

This section explains on how to configure the data source refresh setting.

Steps to configure a data source refresh setting

1. Click the Actions button in the Data sources grid context menu and select the Refresh Setting option.

   

2. Select the recurrence type, recurrence, start and end dates in the Refresh Setting dialog box.

   • Data refresh can be scheduled hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly.
   • The minimum data refresh interval time will be 5 minutes.
   • Application Time Zone is displayed below the date picker. The start time of the schedule is converted to the client’s Time Zone and shown on the right side for the user’s convenience. After selecting, click on the Schedule button.
   • Data refresh failure notification can be sent to the owner of the data source with the error message and a link to the data source refresh history by enabling the ‘send failure notification to owner’ option.
   • Bold BI application deactivates the data refresh after limited consecutive failures and sends the disable notification to the owner by mail.

   

NOTE: Only the data source created with extract mode will have this refresh setting option.

Refresh Data

Data refresh can be run on demand by using the Refresh Data option in the data source grid context menu.

Refresh History

You can see the data refresh history information of the corresponding data source in the Refresh History option in the data source grid context menu.

You can also see failure information by clicking the failed link in the run history dialog box.

NOTE: Only the data source created with extract mode will have this refresh history option.

Refresh Logs

The refresh log provides a comprehensive overview of the refresh activities, including the corresponding timestamp of each event.

To access the refresh logs, click the View option in the grid. This will open the refresh log in the Advanced tab.

NOTE:

• The refresh log will display tooltip information indicating whether it has been deleted after a certain period from its creation time or if it is unavailable due to being an older refresh request.
• The logs for each refresh will be automatically deleted after 15 days from their respective creation time.

View Linked Dashboards

You can view the dashboard(s) created with the corresponding data source using the View Linked Dashboards option in the data source grid context menu.

You can also view the number of dashboards linked to the data source on the data source listing page.

NOTE: All the dashboards associated with the data source will be updated whenever the data source is updated.

Share Data sources

This section explains how to share data sources with other users in Bold BI.

Steps to share a data source

1. Click the Actions button in the Data sources grid context menu and select the Sharing Permissions option.

   

2. Select the permission access from the Select Access dropdown and type in the user or group name with whom you want to share the data source.

   

3. After selecting the permission access and users or groups, click the Share button.

   

NOTE: Only the user who created the data source and the Administrator can share the data source with other Bold BI users.

Remove Permission

The user who created the data source and the Administrator can remove the shared data source permissions.

1. Click the Manage Access button to see the users or groups and their permissions.

   

2. Then remove the permissions using the Remove option in the Actions column of each permission.

   

Version History

Versions and file logs for each data source are maintained in Bold BI for every change in the data source. Check the Version History section for more details.

Delete Data Sources

Data Sources can also be deleted from Bold BI when they are no longer required.

Click the Actions button in the data sources grid context menu and select Delete to delete the data source.

Preview Data Sources

You can preview the data of your data sources.

Click Actions in the data sources grid context menu and select Preview Data to preview the data source.

Information of Data Source

You can see the information of the respective Data Source in the dialog box. Click Actions in the grid context menu and select Info.

Copy Data Sources

Copy the data source item for the data sources of the Live and Extract mode connection types.

Click the Actions button in the data sources grid context menu and select Copy Data Source to copy the data source.

Draft Data Sources

The Data Source will be automatically saved as a draft when the user did not publish the created data source.

You can view the unpublished draft data sources in the data source listing page tagged with draft label.