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Overview

The Print Tracker Data Gateway is a cloud-based data replication service that automatically replicates your data into other databases like Postgres so that you can more easily work with your data in BI tools like Power BI, Tableau, or Looker.

Print Tracker Data Gateway currently supports replication to Postgres databases and provides a managed Postgres database that you can configure directly within Print Tracker. This means that you don't need to worry about setting up your own Postgres database, managing backups, or scaling your database as your data grows.

Replication​

Data Gateway replicates your data in batches every 6-hours, in other words, your data is never more than 6-hours old. A Data Gateway is associated with a specific entity and its children. When you create a Data Gateway, data from the associated entity and its children will be replicated to the target database. The following data is currently supported:

  • Entities
  • Installs
  • Devices
  • Supplies (with current alert statuses)

Getting Started​

Setting up the Data Gateway takes less than a minute. In order to configure the gateway, you'll need the Integrations Manager role. This role will allow you to create, delete, and modify data gateways.

Creating a Data Gateway​

  1. Open the Print Tracker Integrations Console.
  2. Using the entity search in the top-left, find the entity you want to replicate data for.
  3. Click Add integration.
  4. Under Managed Postgres, click Create Integration, when prompted to confirm, click Are you sure?.

Connecting with Power BI​

You can connect to the Postgres database using Power BI. The very first time you open a Power BI template, you'll need to manually connect it to the Data Gateway's Postgres database. To do this:

  1. Open the Print Tracker Integrations Console.
  2. Using the entity search in the top-left, find the entity where the Data Gateway is configured.
  3. Click the Templates tab.
  4. Click Download on the Power BI Starter Dashboard template. This template is a good starting point for working with the Data Gateway Postgres database because it has all the tables and relationships pre-configured for you, and includes an example dashboard to get you started.
  5. Open the template by clicking on it in your downloads folder or in your browser.
  6. The templates have default connection information that you'll need to overwrite with the connection information of your Data Gateway. When prompted for a username and password, click Cancel. Close the connection dialog and any other popups that appear.
  7. In the top-left corner, click File > Options and settings > Data source settings.
  8. The default connection information will appear, click Change Source.
  9. Back on the Print Tracker Integrations Console, click on the Connection tab to get access to your connection information and credentials.
  10. Next to the Hostname, click the copy icon.
  11. Paste the hostname into the Server field in Power BI, then click OK, then click Close.
  12. Back on the Power BI home screen, click Apply Changes.
  13. Power BI will prompt you for a username and password. Back on the Print Tracker Integrations Console, under the Connection tab, copy the Username and Password into Power BI.
  14. Click Connect.

Connecting with a Postgres Client​

You can connect to the Postgres database using any Postgres-compatible database client. To find your connection credentials:

  1. Open the Print Tracker Integrations Console.
  2. Using the entity search in the top-left, find the entity where the Data Gateway is configured.
  3. Click the Connection tab.

Billing​

Billing is based on a combination of compute and storage. The more devices you have, the more storage you'll use. The more often you connect to the gateway and run queries, the more compute you'll use. Print Tracker provides a $10.00 free tier for all customers. This free tier is estimated to be sufficient for:

Devices2,000
Meter History1 year
Usage2 hours per day