Model, Search, and Visualize Live Lakebase Data in ThoughtSpot

ThoughtSpot is a cloud-based analytics platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to help users analyze data and make decisions. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Lakebase data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to connect to Lakebase and build visualizations from Lakebase data in ThoughtSpot.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL Server, cloud-to-cloud interface for Lakebase, allowing you to easily build models and visualizations from live Lakebase data in ThoughtSpot. As you build visualizations, ThoughtSpot 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 Lakebase, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Lakebase data.

Configure Lakebase Connectivity for ThoughtSpot

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

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

2. Select "Lakebase" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Lakebase. To connect to Databricks Lakebase, start by setting the following properties:
   • DatabricksInstance: The Databricks instance or server hostname, provided in the format instance-abcdef12-3456-7890-abcd-abcdef123456.database.cloud.databricks.com.
   • Server: The host name or IP address of the server hosting the Lakebase database.
   • Port (optional): The port of the server hosting the Lakebase database, set to 5432 by default.
   • Database (optional): The database to connect to after authenticating to the Lakebase Server, set to the authenticating user's default database by default.

   OAuth Client Authentication

   To authenicate using OAuth client credentials, you need to configure an OAuth client in your service principal. In short, you need to do the following:

   1. Create and configure a new service principal
   2. Assign permissions to the service principal
   3. Create an OAuth secret for the service principal

   For more information, refer to the Setting Up OAuthClient Authentication section in the Help documentation.

   OAuth PKCE Authentication

   To authenticate using the OAuth code type with PKCE (Proof Key for Code Exchange), set the following properties:

   • AuthScheme: OAuthPKCE.
   • User: The authenticating user's user ID.

   For more information, refer to the Help documentation.

   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Lakebase 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 Lakebase data from ThoughtSpot.

Model, Search, and Visualize Live Lakebase Data in ThoughtSpot

To establish a connection from ThoughtSpot to the CData Connect AI Virtual SQL Server API, follow these steps.

1. Log into ThoughtSpot
2. On the top navigation bar, click Data.
3. Click Create new > Connection.
4. Name the connection and click "SQL Server" as the data warehouse.
5. Click Continue on the top right.
6. Enter the connection settings:
   • Host: enter the Virtual SQL Server endpoint: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: : enter 14333
   • Username: 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.
   • Database: enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect AI data source you want to connect to (for example, Lakebase1).
   
7. Click Continue.
8. After connecting successfully, you will be able to choose which tables to include.
9. Click Create Connection.

After you successfully configure your connection, you can build models, search, and visualize your Lakebase data.

Real-Time Access to Lakebase Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Lakebase data from ThoughtSpot. You can model, search, and visualize your data from ThoughtSpot . For more information on gaining live access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources from cloud applications like ThoughtSpot, refer to our Connect AI page.