Query, Visualize, and Share live Google Search Results in Redash

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

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

Configure Google Search Connectivity for Redash

Connectivity to Google Search from Redash is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Google Search results in Redash, we start by creating and configuring a Google Search connection.

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

2. Select "Google Search" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Google Search.

   To search with a Google custom search engine, you need to set the CustomSearchId and ApiKey connection properties.

   To obtain the CustomSearchId property, sign into Google Custom Search Engine and create a new search engine.

   To obtain the ApiKey property, you must enable the Custom Search API in the Google API Console.

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

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect Cloud 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 Cloud. 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 Cloud 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 Google Search results from Redash.

Connect to Google Search from Redash using Connect Cloud

To establish a connection from Redash to CData Connect Cloud 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 Cloud 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 Cloud username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect Cloud 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 Google Search results in Redash.

Get CData Connect Cloud

To get live data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from Redash, try CData Connect Cloud today!