Build Recurly Visualizations in Tableau Cloud

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

CData Connect AI provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Recurly, allowing you to easily build visualizations from live Recurly data in Tableau Cloud without installing connectors or publishing worksheets and data sources from Tableau Desktop. As you build visualizations, Tableau Cloud 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 Recurly, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Recurly data.

Configure Recurly Connectivity for Tableau Cloud

To work with Recurly data from Tableau Cloud, we need to connect to Recurly from Connect AI, provide user access to the connection, and create a Virtual Schema for the Recurly data.

Connect to Recurly from Connect AI

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

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

2. Select "Recurly" from the Add Connection panel

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

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

   Recurly API Profile Settings

   Navigate to Integrations > API Credentials in your Recurly account and click Add Private API Key.

   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Recurly 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 Personal 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.

Configure Recurly Endpoints for Tableau Cloud

After connecting to Recurly, create a virtual schema for your desired table(s).

1. Navigate to the Virtual Schemas page and click Add to create a new Virtual Schema (enter a Virtual Schema Name and click Confirm), or select an existing one.
2. Click Add to open the Add Asset dialog and add new assets to the Virtual Schema.
3. Select the Recurly connection (e.g. API1) and click Next.
4. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm.
5. Click View Endpoints and make note of the OData Service URL for your virtual schema, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{virtual_schema_name}

With the connection, PAT, and Virtual Schema configured, you are ready to connect to Recurly data from Tableau Cloud.

Visualize Live Recurly Data in Tableau Cloud

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

1. Log into Tableau Cloud, select a account, and create a new workbook.
2. In the new workbook, choose the OData Connector from the data wizard and fill in the values for your Connect AI instance.
   • Set Server to the OData URL for your Virtual Schema, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{virtual_schema_name}
   • Set Authentication to Username and Password
   • Set Username to your Connect AI username (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to a PAT for the above user
   
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 Recurly Data from Cloud Applications

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