Build MongoDB Visualizations in Tableau Online

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

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL Server, cloud-to-cloud interface for MongoDB, allowing you to easily build visualizations from live MongoDB data in Tableau Online without installing connectors or publishing worksheets and data sources from Tableau Desktop. As you build visualizations, Tableau Online generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to MongoDB, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return MongoDB data.

Connect to MongoDB in Connect Cloud

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

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "MongoDB" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to MongoDB.

   Set the Server, Database, User, and Password connection properties to connect to MongoDB. To access MongoDB collections as tables you can use automatic schema discovery or write your own schema definitions. Schemas are defined in .rsd files, which have a simple format. You can also execute free-form queries that are not tied to the schema.

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

Add a Personal Access Token

If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
2. On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give your 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, you are ready to connect to MongoDB data from Tableau Online.

Visualize Live MongoDB Data in Tableau Online

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

1. Log into Tableau Online, select a account, and create a new workbook.
2. In the new workbook, choose the Microsoft SQL Server Connector from the data wizard and fill in the values for your Connect Cloud instance.
   • Set Server to tds.cdata.com,14333
   • Set Database to the MongoDB connection you created (e.g. MongoDB1)
   • Set Username to your Connect Cloud username (e.g. user@mydomain.com)
   • Set Password to a PAT for the above user
   • Check the Require SSL checkbox
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 MongoDB Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live MongoDB data from your Tableau Online 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 Online, refer to our Connect Cloud page.