Create Reports from Avro 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 Avro data to create visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article provides step-by-step instructions on establishing a virtual database for Avro and generating reports from Avro data within Looker Studio.

CData Connect AI offers a seamless cloud-to-cloud interface tailored for Avro, making it straightforward to construct reports directly from live Avro 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 Avro. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly provide the requested Avro data.

Configure Avro Connectivity for Looker Studio

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

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

2. Select "Avro" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Avro. Connect to your local Avro file(s) by setting the URI connection property to the location of the Avro file.
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Avro Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

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

Visualize Live Avro Data from Looker Studio

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Looker Studio to create a new Avro 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. Avro1) and click Next
6. Select a Table (e.g. SampleTable_1) 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 Avro Data from Cloud Applications

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