Build ShipEngine-Connected Visualizations in datapine

datapine is a browser-based business intelligence platform. When paired with the CData Connect AI, you get access to your ShipEngine data directly from your datapine visualizations and dashboards. This article describes connecting to ShipEngine in CData Connect AI and building a simple ShipEngine-connected visualization in datapine.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL Server interface for ShipEngine, allowing you to query data from ShipEngine without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to ShipEngine, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested ShipEngine data quickly.

Configure ShipEngine Connectivity for datapine

Connectivity to ShipEngine from datapine is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with ShipEngine data from datapine, we start by creating and configuring a ShipEngine connection.

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

2. Select "ShipEngine" from the Add Connection panel

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

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

   ShipEngine API Profile Settings

   Retrieve your ShipEngine API Key from the Dashboard at app.shipengine.com under API Management.

   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add ShipEngine 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 ShipEngine data from datapine.

Connecting to ShipEngine from datapine

Once you configure your connection to ShipEngine in Connect AI, you are ready to connect to ShipEngine from datapine.

1. Log into datapine
2. Click Connect to navigate to the "Connect" page
3. Select MS SQL Server as the data source
4. In the Integration step, fill in the connection properties and click "Save and Proceed"
   • Set the Internal Name
   • Set Database Name to the name of the connection we just configured (e.g. API1)
   • Set Host / IP to "tds.cdata.com"
   • Set Username to your Connect AI username (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to the corresponding PAT
   • Set Database Port to "14333"
   
5. In the Data Schema step, select the tables and fields to visualize and click "Save and Proceed"
6. In the References step, define any relationships between your selected tables and click "Save and Proceed"
7. In the Data Transfer step, click "Go to Analyzer"

Visualize ShipEngine Data in datapine

After connecting to CData Connect AI, you are ready to visualize your ShipEngine data in datapine. Simply select the dimensions and measures you wish to visualize!

Having connect to ShipEngine from datapine, you are now able to visualize and analyze real-time ShipEngine data no matter where you are. To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from datapine, try CData Connect AI today!