How to integrate Metabase with Reckon Accounts Hosted Data

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

CData Connect provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Reckon Accounts Hosted, allowing you to easily integrate with live Reckon Accounts Hosted 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 Reckon Accounts Hosted, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Reckon Accounts Hosted data.

Configure Reckon Accounts Hosted Connectivity for Metabase

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

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "Reckon Accounts Hosted" from the Add Connection panel
3. Reckon Accounts Hosted uses OAuth to authenticate. Click "Sign in" to authenticate with Reckon Accounts Hosted.
4. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Reckon Accounts Hosted 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 Reckon Accounts Hosted data from Metabase.

Connect to CData Connect from Metabase

After creating the virtual database, navigate to your Metabase instance. Use the SQL Server interface to connect to Connect Cloud.

1. Navigate to the administration screen (Settings -> Admin) and click "Add Database" from the "Databases" tab
2. Configure the connection to Connect Cloud and click "Save"
   • Database type: Select "SQL Server"
   • Name: Name the connection (e.g. "Reckon Accounts Hosted (Connect Cloud)")
   • Host: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: 14333
   • Database name: The name of the connection you just created (e.g. ReckonAccountsHosted1)
   • Username: A Connect Cloud username (e.g. [email protected])
   • Password: The PAT for the above Connect Cloud user
   • Click to Use a secure connection (SSL)
   

Execute Reckon Accounts Hosted Data with Metabase

Once you configure the connection to Connect Cloud, you can query Reckon Accounts Hosted and build visualizations.

1. Use the "Write SQL" tool to retrieve the Reckon Accounts Hosted data
2. Write a SQL query based on the Reckon Accounts Hosted connection in CData Connect Cloud, e.g.
   
   

   SELECT Name, Balance FROM Accounts WHERE IsActive = 'true'

   
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 Reckon Accounts Hosted data in Metabase. You can continue to work with live Reckon Accounts Hosted data in Metabase just like you would any SQL Server database. For more information on creating a live connection to Reckon Accounts Hosted (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect Cloud page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live Reckon Accounts Hosted data in Metabase today.