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Use CData Connect Cloud to connect to live ServiceNow data and build visualizations in Tableau.
Tableau is a visual analytics platform transforming the way businesses use data to solve problems. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to ServiceNow data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to connect to ServiceNow and build visualizations from ServiceNow data in Tableau.
About ServiceNow Data Integration
CData simplifies access and integration of live ServiceNow data. Our customers leverage CData connectivity to:
- Get optimized performance since CData uses the REST API for data and the SOAP API for schema.
- Read, write, update, and delete ServiceNow objects like Schedules, Timelines, Questions, Syslogs and more.
- Use SQL stored procedures for actions like adding items to a cart, submitting orders, and downloading attachments.
- Securely authenticate with ServiceNow, including basic (username and password), OKTA, ADFS, OneLogin, and PingFederate authentication schemes.
Many users access live ServiceNow data from preferred analytics tools like Tableau, Power BI, and Excel, and use CData solutions to integrate ServiceNow data with their database or data warehouse.
Getting Started
CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL Server, cloud-to-cloud interface for ServiceNow, allowing you to easily build visualizations from live ServiceNow data in Tableau without installing connectors. As you build visualizations, Tableau generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to ServiceNow, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return ServiceNow data.
Configure ServiceNow Connectivity for Tableau
Connectivity to ServiceNow from Tableau is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with ServiceNow data from Tableau, we start by creating and configuring a ServiceNow connection.
- Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
- Select "ServiceNow" from the Add Connection panel
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Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to ServiceNow.
ServiceNow uses the OAuth 2.0 authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, you will need to register an OAuth app with ServiceNow to obtain the OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret connection properties. In addition to the OAuth values, you will need to specify the Instance, Username, and Password connection properties.
See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for a guide on connecting to ServiceNow.
- Click Create & Test
- Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add ServiceNow 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.
- Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
- On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
- Give your PAT a name and click Create.
- 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 ServiceNow data from Tableau.
Visualize Live ServiceNow Data in Tableau
To establish a connection from Tableau Desktop to the CData Connect Cloud Virtual SQL Server API, follow these steps.
- In Tableau Desktop, open a new book. Under To a Server, select More, then Microsoft SQL Server.
- Enter your credentials:
- Server: enter the Virtual SQL Server endpoint and port separated by a comma: tds.cdata.com,14333
- Database: enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect Cloud data source you want to connect to (for example, ServiceNow1).
- Authentication: select Use a specific username and password.
- Username: enter your CData Connect Cloud username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect Cloud interface. For example, [email protected].
- Password: enter the PAT you previously generated.
- Require SSL: leave this selected.
- Click Sign In.
- Select the Database (Connect Cloud connection) you wish to work with and opt for a Live or Extract Connection type.
- Select the table(s) you wish to visualize. If you select multiple tables, define the relationship between the tables using the appropriate columns.
- Select the fields to visualize.
Real-Time Access to ServiceNow Data from Data Applications
At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live ServiceNow data from your Tableau workbook. You can create new visualizations, build dashboards, and more. For more information on gaining live access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources from applications like Tableau, refer to our Connect Cloud page.