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Get the Report →Build ADP Visualizations in Tableau Cloud
Use CData Connect Cloud to connect to live ADP data and build visualizations in Tableau Cloud.
Tableau Cloud is an analytics platform fully hosted in the cloud. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to ADP data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to connect to ADP and build visualizations from ADP data in Tableau Cloud.
CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL Server, cloud-to-cloud interface for ADP, allowing you to easily build visualizations from live ADP data in Tableau Cloud without installing connectors or publishing worksheets and data sources from Tableau Desktop. As you build visualizations, Tableau Cloud generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to ADP, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return ADP data.
Configure ADP Connectivity for Tableau Cloud
Connectivity to ADP from Tableau Cloud is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with ADP data from Tableau Cloud, we start by creating and configuring a ADP connection.
- Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
- Select "ADP" from the Add Connection panel
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Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to ADP.
Connect to ADP by specifying the following properties:
- SSLClientCert: Set this to the certificate provided during registration.
- SSLClientCertPassword: Set this to the password of the certificate.
- UseUAT: The connector makes requests to the production environment by default. If using a developer account, set UseUAT = true.
- RowScanDepth: The maximum number of rows to scan for the custom fields columns available in the table. The default value will be set to 100. Setting a high value may decrease performance.
The connector uses OAuth to authenticate with ADP. OAuth requires the authenticating user to interact with ADP using the browser. For more information, refer to the OAuth section in the Help documentation.
- Click Create & Test
- Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add ADP 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.
- Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
- On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
- Give your PAT a name and click Create.
- 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 ADP data from Tableau Cloud.
Visualize Live ADP Data in Tableau Cloud
The steps below outline creating a new data source in Tableau Cloud based on the virtual ADP database in Connect Cloud and building a simple visualization from the data.
- Log into Tableau Cloud, select a account, and create a new workbook.
- In the new workbook, choose the Microsoft SQL Server Connector from the data wizard and fill in the values for your Connect Cloud instance.
- Set Server to tds.cdata.com,14333
- Set Database to the ADP connection you created (e.g. ADP1)
- Set Username to your Connect Cloud username (e.g. [email protected])
- Set Password to a PAT for the above user
- Check the Require SSL checkbox
- Select your newly created database and the table(s) you wish to visualize (defining relationships for JOINad tables as needed).
- Select Dimensions and Measures and configure your visualization.
Real-Time Access to ADP Data from Cloud Applications
At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live ADP data from your Tableau Cloud workbook. You can create new visualizations, build dashboards, and more, with no need to publish data sources and workbooks from Tableau Desktop. For more information on gaining live access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources from cloud applications like Tableau Cloud, refer to our Connect Cloud page.