Establish a Live Connection with RabbitMQ Data using Tableau Bridge

The Tableau Bridge enables you to publish dashboards to Tableau Cloud while maintaining live connectivity with any data source. In this article, you will use the Tableau Bridge to maintain data freshness in a published workbook by listening for changes in the underlying RabbitMQ data.

The CData ODBC drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live RabbitMQ data in Tableau Cloud due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from Tableau Cloud to RabbitMQ, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to RabbitMQ and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. With built-in dynamic metadata querying, you can visualize and analyze RabbitMQ data using native Tableau data types.

Connect to RabbitMQ as an ODBC Data Source

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

About RabbitMQ Management HTTP API

RabbitMQ is an open-source message broker that supports multiple messaging protocols. The RabbitMQ Management HTTP API provides HTTP-based access to management and monitoring data for a RabbitMQ server. The API exposes information about virtual hosts, exchanges, queues, bindings, connections, channels, consumers, users, permissions, policies, and cluster-wide statistics.

The Management plugin must be enabled on the RabbitMQ server for the HTTP API to be available. By default, the management interface listens on port 15672.

Using Basic Authentication

RabbitMQ Management HTTP API uses HTTP Basic authentication. You must supply the username and password of a RabbitMQ management user.

To enable access to the management API:

1. Ensure the RabbitMQ Management plugin is enabled on your server (rabbitmq-plugins enable rabbitmq_management).
2. Use an existing management user or create one with the appropriate management tag (management, policymaker, monitoring, or administrator).
3. Note the full base URL of your RabbitMQ Management HTTP API (e.g., http://localhost:15672).

After configuring your RabbitMQ server, set the following connection properties to connect:

• AuthScheme: Set this to Basic.
• URL: Set this to the base URL of your RabbitMQ Management HTTP API (e.g., http://localhost:15672).
• User: Set this to your RabbitMQ management username (e.g., guest).
• Password: Set this to your RabbitMQ management password.

Example connection string:

Profile=C:\profiles\RabbitMQ.apip;AuthScheme=Basic;URL=http://localhost:15672;User=guest;Password=guest;

Available Tables

The RabbitMQ profile provides access to the following tables:

• Overview - Cluster-wide statistics and information about the RabbitMQ node
• Nodes - Information about individual nodes in the RabbitMQ cluster
• NodeMemory - Detailed memory usage breakdown for a specific cluster node
• Connections - List of all open AMQP connections to the broker
• Channels - List of all open AMQP channels across all connections
• Consumers - List of all consumers registered across all queues
• Exchanges - List of exchanges declared across all virtual hosts
• Queues - List of queues declared across all virtual hosts
• Bindings - List of all bindings between exchanges and queues
• VirtualHosts - List of virtual hosts configured on the broker
• VhostPermissions - User permissions within a specific virtual host
• Users - List of all RabbitMQ users
• Permissions - Permission records for all users across all virtual hosts
• TopicPermissions - Topic-level permission records for all users
• Policies - List of policies applied to queues and exchanges in virtual hosts
• OperatorPolicies - List of operator policies applied to queues in virtual hosts
• Parameters - List of component parameters (e.g., federation, shovel) per virtual host
• GlobalParameters - List of global parameters that apply across all virtual hosts
• VhostLimits - Resource limits configured for specific virtual hosts
• UserLimits - Resource limits configured for specific users
• FeatureFlags - List of feature flags and their enabled/disabled state on the node
• DeprecatedFeatures - List of deprecated features and their usage state
• AuthAttempts - Authentication attempt statistics for the node
• ClusterName - The name of the RabbitMQ cluster
• WhoAmI - Information about the currently authenticated management user
• ExchangeBindingsSource - Bindings for which a specific exchange is the source
• ExchangeBindingsDestination - Bindings for which a specific exchange is the destination
• QueueBindings - Bindings for a specific queue within a virtual host

When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

Add RabbitMQ Data to a Dashboard

1. From a new workbook, click Data -> New Data Source -> Other Databases (ODBC).
   Select the CData Data Source Name (for example: CData API Source).
2. In the Database menu, select CData.
3. In the Table box, enter a table name or click New Custom SQL to enter an SQL query. This article retrieves the AuthAttempts table.
4. Drag the table onto the join area. At this point, you can include multiple tables, leveraging the built-in SQL engine to process complex data requests.
5. Click the tab for your worksheet. Columns are listed as Dimensions and Measures, which you can drag and drop onto the dashboard to create visualizations.

Set Up Tableau Bridge as a Service

1. In the Server menu, select Start Tableau Bridge Client.
2. Sign in to the Tableau Bridge using a site admin level account.
3. If prompted, select the Tableau Cloud site where you want to publish live data. The bridge client will open and is accessible from the system tray.
4. By default, the Tableau Bridge client is set to Application mode. Select 'Switch to service' to enable Tableau Bridge to handle live connections.
5. Log in to your Tableau Cloud site as an administrator.
6. From your site, click Settings, then Bridge.
7. In the Bridge settings, under Enable Clients to Maintain Live Connections, check the box labeled 'Enable Tableau Bridge clients to maintain live connections to on-premises data.'

Publish a Dashboard Containing the Live Data Source

Having configured both the Tableau Bridge and Tableau Cloud to enable live data connections, you can now publish your workbook to Tableau Cloud. From the Server menu, select Publish Workbook.

After choosing the workbook name and project that you wish to publish to, configure the deployment so that the CData ODBC driver for RabbitMQ is embedded in your workbook as a separate, live data source.

1. Under Data Sources, select the option to Edit the embedded data sources in the workbook.
2. Change Publish Type to 'Published separately,' then select a desired means of authentication.
3. Last, select 'Maintain connection to a live data source' and click the green Publish Workbook button.

The published workbook now updates alongside the underlying RabbitMQ data. From a published dashboard, simply click the Refresh button to reflect the most recent changes.