How to integrate Metabase with BigCommerce 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 BigCommerce data. This article describes how to connect to BigCommerce and build a simple visualization using BigCommerce data.

CData Connect provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for BigCommerce, allowing you to easily integrate with live BigCommerce 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 BigCommerce, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return BigCommerce data.

Configure BigCommerce Connectivity for Metabase

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

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

   BigCommerce authentication is based on the standard OAuth flow. To authenticate, you must initially create an app via the Big Commerce developer platform where you can obtain an OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL. These three parameters will be set as connection properties to your driver.

   Additionally, in order to connect to your BigCommerce Store, you will need your StoreId. To find your Store Id please follow these steps:

   1. Log in to your BigCommerce account.
   2. From the Home Page, select Advanced Settings > API Accounts.
   3. Click Create API Account.
   4. A text box named API Path will appear on your screen.
   5. Inside you can see a URL of the following structure: https://api.bigcommerce.com/stores/{Store Id}/v3.
   6. As demonstrated above, your Store Id will be between the 'stores/' and '/v3' path paramters.
   7. Once you have retrieved your Store Id you can either click Cancel or proceed in creating an API Account in case you do not have one already.
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add BigCommerce 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 BigCommerce 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. "BigCommerce (Connect Cloud)")
   • Host: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: 14333
   • Database name: The name of the connection you just created (e.g. BigCommerce1)
   • 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 BigCommerce Data with Metabase

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

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

   SELECT FirstName, LastName FROM Customers WHERE FirstName = 'Bob'

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