Create Interactive Metabase Dashboards that Work with Airtable 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 Airtable data. This article describes how to connect to Airtable and build a simple visualization using Airtable data.

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

Configure Airtable Connectivity for Metabase

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

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

   APIKey, BaseId and TableNames parameters are required to connect to Airtable. ViewNames is an optional parameter where views of the tables may be specified.

   • APIKey : API Key of your account. To obtain this value, after logging in go to Account. In API section click Generate API key.
   • BaseId : Id of your base. To obtain this value, it is in the same section as the APIKey. Click on Airtable API, or navigate to https://airtable.com/api and select a base. In the introduction section you can find "The ID of this base is appxxN2ftedc0nEG7."
   • TableNames : A comma separated list of table names for the selected base. These are the same names of tables as found in the UI.
   • ViewNames : A comma separated list of views in the format of (table.view) names. These are the same names of the views as found in the UI.
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Airtable 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 Airtable 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. "Airtable (Connect Cloud)")
   • Host: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: 14333
   • Database name: The name of the connection you just created (e.g. Airtable1)
   • 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 Airtable Data with Metabase

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

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

   SELECT Id, Column1 FROM SampleTable_1 WHERE Column2 = 'SomeValue'

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