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

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

Configure Smartsheet Connectivity for Metabase

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

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

   Smartsheet uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, you will need to register an app to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties.

   However, for testing purposes you can instead use the Personal Access Token you get when you create an application; set this to the OAuthAccessToken connection property.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Smartsheet 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 Smartsheet 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. "Smartsheet (Connect Cloud)")
   • Host: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: 14333
   • Database name: The name of the connection you just created (e.g. Smartsheet1)
   • 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 Smartsheet Data with Metabase

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

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

   SELECT TaskName, Progress FROM Sheet_Event_Plan_Budget

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