Create Apps from SAS Data Sets Data in Qlik Sense Cloud

Qlik Sense Cloud allows you to create and share data visualizations and interact with information in new ways. CData Connect AI creates a live connection to SAS Data Sets. By pairing Qlik Sense Cloud with CData Connect AI, you get true cloud-to-cloud connectivity to all of your SaaS and cloud-based Big Data and NoSQL sources — no need to migrate your data or write your integrations. Simply connect to Connect AI from Qlik Sense Cloud and get instant, live access to your SAS Data Sets data.

In this article, we walk through two connections:

1. Connecting to SAS Data Sets in Connect AI
2. Connecting to Connect AI from Qlik Sense Cloud to create a model and build a simple dashboard

Configure SAS Data Sets Connectivity for Qlik Sense Cloud

Connectivity to SAS Data Sets from Qlik Cloud is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with SAS Data Sets data from Qlik Cloud, we start by creating and configuring a SAS Data Sets connection.

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

2. Select "SAS Data Sets" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SAS Data Sets.

   Set the following connection properties to connect to your SAS DataSet files:

   Connecting to Local Files

   • Set the Connection Type to "Local." Local files support SELECT, INSERT, and DELETE commands.
   • Set the URI to a folder containing SAS files, e.g. C:\PATH\TO\FOLDER\.

   Connecting to Cloud-Hosted SAS DataSet Files

   While the driver is capable of pulling data from SAS DataSet files hosted on a variety of cloud data stores, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE are not supported outside of local files in this driver.

   Set the Connection Type to the service hosting your SAS DataSet files. A unique prefix at the beginning of the URI connection property is used to identify the cloud data store and the remainder of the path is a relative path to the desired folder (one table per file) or single file (a single table). For more information, refer to the Getting Started section of the Help documentation.

   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SAS Data Sets 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 SAS Data Sets data from Qlik Sense Cloud.

Create a Qlik Sense App from SAS Data Sets Data

This section explains how to add SAS Data Sets data to a Qlik Sense app for visualizations, analytics, reporting, and more.

Create a New App and Upload Data

1. Log into your Qlik Sense instance and click the button to create a new app
2. Name and configure the new app and click "Create"
3. In the workspace, click to open the new app
4. Click to add data from files and other sources
5. Select the Microsoft SQL Server connector and set the configuration properties.
   • Set Server to tds.cdata.com
   • Set Port to 14333
   • Set Database to the connection you created (e.g. SASDataSets1)
   • Set User name to the Connect AI user (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to the PAT for the above user
   
6. Select an owner for the connection
7. Select a SAS Data Sets entity (Table) to view
8. Click Next, configure the model, and load the data into Qlik Sense.

Generate Insights or Customize Your App

With the data loaded into Qlik Sense, you are ready to begin discovering insights. You can build custom visualizations, reports, and dashboards engineered to gain actionable insights into your SAS Data Sets data.

More Information & Free Trial

Now, you have created a simple but powerful dashboard from live SAS Data Sets data. For more information on creating OData feeds from SAS Data Sets (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect AI page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live SAS Data Sets data in Qlik Sense Cloud.