How to integrate Metabase with Exa Data

Metabase is an open source data visualization tool that allows users to create interactive dashboards. When paired with CData Connect AI, users can easily create visualizations and dashboards linked to live Exa data. This article describes how to connect to Exa and build a simple visualization using Exa data.

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

Configure Exa Connectivity for Metabase

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

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

2. Select "Exa" from the Add Connection panel

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

   Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the Exa Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\Exa.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Exa (see below).

   Exa API Profile Settings

   Visit dashboard.exa.ai, sign in or create an account, and generate an API key from your API settings.

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

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the 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 and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Exa data from Metabase.

Connect to CData Connect AI from Metabase

After creating the connection in Connect AI, navigate to your Metabase instance. Use the SQL Server interface to connect to Connect AI.

1. Navigate to the administration screen (Settings -> Admin) and click "Add Database" from the "Databases" tab
2. Configure the connection to Connect AI and click "Save"
   • Database type: Select "SQL Server"
   • Name: Name the connection (e.g. "Exa (Connect AI)")
   • Host: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: 14333
   • Database name: The name of the connection you just created (e.g. API1)
   • Username: A Connect AI username (e.g. [email protected])
   • Password: The PAT previously created
   • Click to Use a secure connection (SSL)
   

Execute Exa Data with Metabase

Once you configure the connection to Connect AI, you can query Exa and build visualizations.

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

   SELECT RequestId, Answer FROM Answer WHERE RequestId = 'my-request-id'

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