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Visualize JSON Services in Tableau Desktop (through CData Connect)


Create a virtual SQL Server database for JSON services in CData Connect (or Connect Server) and build visualizations from live JSON services in Tableau Desktop.

Tableau is a visual analytics platform transforming the way businesses use data to solve problems. When paired with CData Connect (or Connect Server), you can easily get access to live JSON services within Tableau.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for JSON, allowing you to easily build reports from live JSON services in Tableau Desktop — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. As you build visualizations, Tableau Desktop generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Server pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to JSON, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested JSON services.

This article shows how to create a virtual SQL Server database for JSON, connect to the virtual database in Tableau, and build a simple chart.

Create a Virtual SQL Server Database for JSON Services

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

  1. Login to Connect Server and click Connections.
  2. Select "JSON" from Available Data Sources.
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to JSON.

    See the Getting Started chapter in the data provider documentation to authenticate to your data source: The data provider models JSON APIs as bidirectional database tables and JSON files as read-only views (local files, files stored on popular cloud services, and FTP servers). The major authentication schemes are supported, including HTTP Basic, Digest, NTLM, OAuth, and FTP. See the Getting Started chapter in the data provider documentation for authentication guides.

    After setting the URI and providing any authentication values, set DataModel to more closely match the data representation to the structure of your data.

    The DataModel property is the controlling property over how your data is represented into tables and toggles the following basic configurations.

    • Document (default): Model a top-level, document view of your JSON data. The data provider returns nested elements as aggregates of data.
    • FlattenedDocuments: Implicitly join nested documents and their parents into a single table.
    • Relational: Return individual, related tables from hierarchical data. The tables contain a primary key and a foreign key that links to the parent document.

    See the Modeling JSON Data chapter for more information on configuring the relational representation. You will also find the sample data used in the following examples. The data includes entries for people, the cars they own, and various maintenance services performed on those cars.

  4. Click Save Changes
  5. Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions.

With the virtual database created, you are ready to connect to JSON services from Tableau Desktop.

Visualize Live JSON Services in Tableau Desktop

The steps below outline connecting to the virtual JSON database in CData Connect and building a simple visualization from the data.

  1. Open Tableau and click "Microsoft SQL Server" under Connect -> To a Server.
  2. In the connection wizard, enter the values for your CData Connect instance and click "Sign In"
    • Server: the address of your Connect instance and port of the TDS endpoint, separated by a comma (default port is: 1433)
    • Database: the virtual database you configured for the JSON services
    • Username & Password: the credentials for a CData Connect user
  3. Select your newly created database and the table(s) you wish to visualize (defining relationships for JOINed tables as needed).
  4. Select Dimensions and Measures and configure your visualization.

SQL Access to JSON Services from On-Premise Applications

At this point, you have a direct connection to live JSON services from your Tableau Desktop workbook. You can create new visualizations, build dashboards, and more. For more information on gaining SQL access to data from more than 200 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources (including JSON) from desktop applications like Tableau refer to our CData Connect page or download a free trial.