How to integrate Metabase with Adobe Analytics Data

Metabase is an open source data visualization tool that allows users to create interactive dashboards. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, users can easily create visualizations and dashboards linked to live Adobe Analytics data. This article describes how to connect to Adobe Analytics and build a simple visualization using Adobe Analytics data.

CData Connect provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Adobe Analytics, allowing you to easily integrate with live Adobe Analytics data in Metabase — without replicating the data. Connect looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Metabase and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Adobe Analytics, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Adobe Analytics data.

Configure Adobe Analytics Connectivity for Metabase

Connectivity to Adobe Analytics from Metabase is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Adobe Analytics data from Metabase, we start by creating and configuring a Adobe Analytics connection.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "Adobe Analytics" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Adobe Analytics.

   Adobe Analytics uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, you will need to create an app to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties. See the "Getting Started" section of the help documentation for a guide.

   Retrieving GlobalCompanyId

   GlobalCompanyId is a required connection property. If you do not know your Global Company ID, you can find it in the request URL for the users/me endpoint on the Swagger UI. After logging into the Swagger UI Url, expand the users endpoint and then click the GET users/me button. Click the Try it out and Execute buttons. Note your Global Company ID shown in the Request URL immediately preceding the users/me endpoint.

   Retrieving Report Suite Id

   Report Suite ID (RSID) is also a required connection property. In the Adobe Analytics UI, navigate to Admin -> Report Suites and you will get a list of your report suites along with their identifiers next to the name.

   After setting the GlobalCompanyId, RSID and OAuth connection properties, you are ready to connect to Adobe Analytics.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Adobe Analytics Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
2. On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give your PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Adobe Analytics data from Metabase.

Connect to CData Connect from Metabase

After creating the virtual database, navigate to your Metabase instance. Use the SQL Server interface to connect to Connect Cloud.

1. Navigate to the administration screen (Settings -> Admin) and click "Add Database" from the "Databases" tab
2. Configure the connection to Connect Cloud and click "Save"
   • Database type: Select "SQL Server"
   • Name: Name the connection (e.g. "Adobe Analytics (Connect Cloud)")
   • Host: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: 14333
   • Database name: The name of the connection you just created (e.g. AdobeAnalytics1)
   • Username: A Connect Cloud username (e.g. user@mydomain.com)
   • Password: The PAT for the above Connect Cloud user
   • Click to Use a secure connection (SSL)

Execute Adobe Analytics Data with Metabase

Once you configure the connection to Connect Cloud, you can query Adobe Analytics and build visualizations.

1. Use the "Write SQL" tool to retrieve the Adobe Analytics data
2. Write a SQL query based on the Adobe Analytics connection in CData Connect Cloud, e.g.
   
   

   SELECT Page, PageViews FROM AdsReport WHERE City = 'Chapel Hill'

3. Navigate to the "Visualization" screen, choose a visualization, and configure the visualization

More Information & Free Trial

At this point, you have built a simple visualization from Adobe Analytics data in Metabase. You can continue to work with live Adobe Analytics data in Metabase just like you would any SQL Server database. For more information on creating a live connection to Adobe Analytics (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect Cloud page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live Adobe Analytics data in Metabase today.