Create Reports from Anaplan Data in Looker Studio

Looker Studio, formerly known as Google Data Studio, empowers users to craft customized reports featuring data visualizations that can be shared with clients while reflecting your brand identity. When combined with CData Connect AI, you gain immediate cloud-to-cloud access to Anaplan data to create visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article provides step-by-step instructions on establishing a virtual database for Anaplan and generating reports from Anaplan data within Looker Studio.

CData Connect AI offers a seamless cloud-to-cloud interface tailored for Anaplan, making it straightforward to construct reports directly from live Anaplan data within Looker Studio without the need for data replication. As you create visualizations, Looker Studio generates queries to retrieve data. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect AI efficiently channels all supported query operations, including filters, JOINs, and more, directly to Anaplan. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly provide the requested Anaplan data.

Configure Anaplan Connectivity for Looker Studio

Connectivity to Anaplan from Looker Studio is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Anaplan data from Looker Studio, we start by creating and configuring a Anaplan connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

2. Select "Anaplan" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Anaplan.

   Authenticating to Anaplan

   The driver supports authenticating with Basic, Certificate, or OAuth. In every case, set Region to the region where your Anaplan account data is hosted (e.g., US1, which is the default).

   Using Basic Authentication

   Set AuthScheme to Basic, then supply your Anaplan User and Password. If your workspace uses single sign-on (SSO), you must be assigned as an Exception User to use Basic authentication.

   Using Certificate Authentication

   Set AuthScheme to Certificate, then supply the Certificate, CertificateType, and PrivateKey properties (and the matching CertificatePassword / PrivateKeyPassword if either is encrypted). The certificate must be a CA-issued X.509 certificate registered with your Anaplan tenant administrator.

   Using OAuth Authentication

   Register a custom OAuth application in Anaplan, then set the following properties:

   • OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
   • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
   • CallbackURL: The redirect URI defined when you registered your application.
   • InitiateOAuth: Set to GETANDREFRESH to have the driver manage the OAuth token exchange and refresh automatically.

   See the Getting Started chapter of the help documentation for a guide to creating a custom OAuth app and using OAuth.

   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Anaplan Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Anaplan data from Looker Studio.

Visualize Live Anaplan Data from Looker Studio

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Looker Studio to create a new Anaplan data source and build a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into Looker Studio, click data sources, create a new data source, and choose CData Connect AI Connector.

2. Click Authorize and allow access to your Google account.
3. Click Authorize to authenticate with your CData Connect AI instance
4. In the CData Connect AI Connector in Looker Studio select Connections to import from the dropdown and click Next

5. Now select a Connection (e.g. Anaplan1) and click Next
6. Select a Table (e.g. Sales) or use a Custom Query and click Connect to continue
7. If needed, modify columns, click Create Report, and add the data source to the report.

8. Select a visualization style and add it to the report.
9. Select Dimensions and Measures to customize your visualization.

Live Access to Anaplan Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Anaplan data from your Looker Studio workbook. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Anaplan data.

Try CData Connect AI and get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.