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Get the Report →Build Airtable Visualizations in Tableau Desktop
Use CData Connect Cloud to connect to live Airtable data and build visualizations in Tableau.
Tableau is a visual analytics platform transforming the way businesses use data to solve problems. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Airtable data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to connect to Airtable and build visualizations from Airtable data in Tableau.
CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL Server, cloud-to-cloud interface for Airtable, allowing you to easily build visualizations from live Airtable data in Tableau without installing connectors. As you build visualizations, Tableau 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 Airtable, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Airtable data.
Configure Airtable Connectivity for Tableau
Connectivity to Airtable from Tableau is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Airtable data from Tableau, we start by creating and configuring a Airtable connection.
- Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
- Select "Airtable" from the Add Connection panel
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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.
- Click Create & Test
- 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.
- 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 Airtable data from Tableau.
Visualize Live Airtable Data in Tableau
To establish a connection from Tableau Desktop to the CData Connect Cloud Virtual SQL Server API, follow these steps.
- In Tableau Desktop, open a new book. Under To a Server, select More, then Microsoft SQL Server.
- Enter your credentials:
- Server: enter the Virtual SQL Server endpoint and port separated by a comma: tds.cdata.com,14333
- Database: enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect Cloud data source you want to connect to (for example, Airtable1).
- Authentication: select Use a specific username and password.
- Username: enter your CData Connect Cloud username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect Cloud interface. For example, [email protected].
- Password: enter the PAT you previously generated.
- Require SSL: leave this selected.
- Click Sign In.
- Select the Database (Connect Cloud connection) you wish to work with and opt for a Live or Extract Connection type.
- Select the table(s) you wish to visualize. If you select multiple tables, define the relationship between the tables using the appropriate columns.
- Select the fields to visualize.
Real-Time Access to Airtable Data from Data Applications
At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Airtable data from your Tableau workbook. You can create new visualizations, build dashboards, and more. For more information on gaining live access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources from applications like Tableau, refer to our Connect Cloud page.