Query, Visualize, and Share live Exa Data in Redash

Redash is a collaboration tool that lets you query, visualize, and share your data. When paired with CData Connect AI, Redash gets access to live Exa data. This article demonstrates how to connect to Exa using Connect AI and work with live Exa data in Redash.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL Server interface for Exa, allowing you to query data from Exa without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to Exa, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested Exa data quickly.

Configure Exa Connectivity for Redash

Connectivity to Exa from Redash is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Exa data in Redash, 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 Redash.

Connect to Exa from Redash using Connect AI

To establish a connection from Redash to CData Connect AI using the Virtual SQL Server, follow these steps:

1. Log into Redash.
2. Click the settings widget on the top right.
3. Click New Data Source.
4. Select Microsoft SQL Server as the Data Source Type.
5. On the configuration tab, set the following properties:
   • Database Name: enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect AI data source you want to connect to (for example, Salesforce1).
   • Server: enter the virtual SQL Server host name (tds.cdata.com)
   • User: enter your CData Connect AI username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect AI interface. For example, [email protected].
   • Password: enter the PAT you generated on the Settings page.
   • Port: enter 14333
   
6. Click Create.
7. Click Test Connection to ensure that the connection is configured properly.

You can now work with live Exa data in Redash.

Get CData Connect AI

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