Build Exa Visualizations in Tableau Cloud

Tableau Cloud is an analytics platform fully hosted in the cloud. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Exa data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to connect to Exa and build visualizations from Exa data in Tableau Cloud.

CData Connect AI provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Exa, allowing you to easily build visualizations from live Exa data in Tableau Cloud without installing connectors or publishing worksheets and data sources from Tableau Desktop. As you build visualizations, Tableau Cloud generates SQL queries to gather data. 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 quickly return Exa data.

Configure Exa Connectivity for Tableau Cloud

To work with Exa data from Tableau Cloud, we need to connect to Exa from Connect AI, provide user access to the connection, and create a Workspace for the Exa data.

Connect to Exa from Connect AI

CData Connect AI uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

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.

Configure Exa Endpoints for Tableau Cloud

After connecting to Exa, create a workspace for your desired table(s).

1. Navigate to the Workspaces page and click Add to create a new Workspace (or select an existing workspace).
2. Click Add to add new assets to the Workspace.
3. Select the Exa connection (e.g. API1) and click Next.
4. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm.
5. Make note of the OData Service URL for your workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}

With the connection, PAT, and Workspace configured, you are ready to connect to Exa data from Tableau Cloud.

Visualize Live Exa Data in Tableau Cloud

The steps below outline creating a new data source in Tableau Cloud based on the virtual Exa database in Connect AI and building a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into Tableau Cloud, select a account, and create a new workbook.
2. In the new workbook, choose the OData Connector from the data wizard and fill in the values for your Connect AI instance.
   • Set Server to the OData URL for your Workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}
   • Set Authentication to Username and Password
   • Set Username to your Connect AI username (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to a PAT for the above user
   
3. Select your newly created database and the table(s) you wish to visualize (defining relationships for JOINad tables as needed).

4. Select Dimensions and Measures and configure your visualization.

Real-Time Access to Exa Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Exa data from your Tableau Cloud workbook. You can create new visualizations, build dashboards, and more, with no need to publish data sources and workbooks from Tableau Desktop. For more information on gaining live access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources from cloud applications like Tableau Cloud, refer to our Connect AI page.