How to integrate Metabase with Printful Data

Metabase is an open source data visualization tool that allows users to create interactive dashboards. When paired with CData Connect AI, users can easily create visualizations and dashboards linked to live Printful data. This article describes how to connect to Printful and build a simple visualization using Printful data.

CData Connect provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Printful, allowing you to easily integrate with live Printful data in Metabase — without replicating the data. Connect looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Metabase and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Printful, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Printful data.

Configure Printful Connectivity for Metabase

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

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

2. Select "Printful" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Printful.

   Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the Printful Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\Printful.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Printful (see below).

   Printful API Profile Settings

   In order to authenticate to Printful, you'll need to provide your API Key. To get your API Key, first go to 'Settings' then 'Stores'. Select the Store you would like to connect to, then click the 'Add API Access' button to generate an API Key. Set the API Key in the ProfileSettings property to connect.

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

Connect to CData Connect AI from Metabase

After creating the connection in Connect AI, navigate to your Metabase instance. Use the SQL Server interface to connect to Connect AI.

1. Navigate to the administration screen (Settings -> Admin) and click "Add Database" from the "Databases" tab
2. Configure the connection to Connect AI and click "Save"
   • Database type: Select "SQL Server"
   • Name: Name the connection (e.g. "Printful (Connect AI)")
   • Host: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: 14333
   • Database name: The name of the connection you just created (e.g. API1)
   • Username: A Connect AI username (e.g. [email protected])
   • Password: The PAT previously created
   • Click to Use a secure connection (SSL)
   

Execute Printful Data with Metabase

Once you configure the connection to Connect AI, you can query Printful and build visualizations.

1. Use the "Write SQL" tool to retrieve the Printful data
2. Write a SQL query based on the Printful connection in CData Connect AI, e.g.
   
   

   SELECT Id, Store FROM Orders WHERE Status = 'inprocess'

   
3. Navigate to the "Visualization" screen, choose a visualization, and configure the visualization

More Information & Free Trial

At this point, you have built a simple visualization from Printful data in Metabase. You can continue to work with live Printful data in Metabase just like you would any SQL Server database. For more information on creating a live connection to Printful (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect AI page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live Printful data in Metabase today.