External Data Sources#

Novaza Office can connect to external data sources so that pages, reports, and workflows can read and display data that lives outside of a namespace’s native records. This is useful when teams need to blend Office data with an existing data warehouse, an analytics database, or a line-of-business system.

Supported Connections#

External data sources are configured as read-only connections from the namespace. Office supports:

Relational databases — connect to an existing reporting database using a connection string and service account credentials
HTTP / REST endpoints — pull JSON data from an authenticated external API at request time
File drops — periodically ingest structured files (CSV, JSON) from a shared storage location

Connections are defined per namespace and require administrator privileges to create or modify.

Configuring a Data Source#

Go to Admin → Data Sources → New Data Source.
Select a connection type and provide the required details (host, port, database name, credentials, or endpoint URL).
Click Test Connection. The system validates connectivity and reports any authentication or network errors.
Define one or more virtual modules that map external tables or endpoint responses to module-like field shapes that pages and reports can consume.
Save the data source. It will appear in the module picker for charts, record list blocks, and workflow steps.

Using External Data on Pages#

Once a virtual module is defined, it can be used just like a native module on dashboards and pages. Drag a Record List or Chart block onto a page and choose the virtual module as its data source. External reads are cached briefly to avoid overloading the source system, with a configurable cache duration per data source (default: 60 seconds).

Security#

Credentials are stored encrypted at rest and are never exposed in the UI
Connections are read-only — no external data source can be mutated from Novaza Office
Every external query is logged in the audit log with the triggering user and the resolved query text
Administrators can pause or revoke a data source at any time without deleting the virtual modules that depend on it