Access Adobe Analytics Data as OData Feeds in Tableau

The CData API Server, when paired with the ADO.NET Provider for Adobe Analytics (or any of 200+ other ADO.NET Providers), provides Adobe Analytics data as OData Web services. This article will explain how to use the API Server to provide the underlying connectivity to Adobe Analytics data in Tableau's business intelligence tool.

Set Up the API Server

Follow the steps below to begin producing secure Adobe Analytics OData services:

Deploy

The API Server runs on your own server. On Windows, you can deploy using the stand-alone server or IIS. On a Java servlet container, drop in the API Server WAR file. See the help documentation for more information and how-tos.

The API Server is also easy to deploy on Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2, and Heroku.

Connect to Adobe Analytics

After you deploy the API Server and the ADO.NET Provider for Adobe Analytics, provide authentication values and other connection properties needed to connect to Adobe Analytics by clicking Settings -> Connections and adding a new connection in the API Server administration console.

Adobe Analytics uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, create an app to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties. See the "Getting Started" section of the help documentation for a guide.

Retrieving GlobalCompanyId

GlobalCompanyId is a required connection property. If you do not know your Global Company ID, you can find it in the request URL for the users/me endpoint on the Swagger UI. After logging into the Swagger UI Url, expand the users endpoint and then click the GET users/me button. Click the Try it out and Execute buttons. Note your Global Company ID shown in the Request URL immediately preceding the users/me endpoint.

Retrieving Report Suite Id

Report Suite ID (RSID) is also a required connection property. In the Adobe Analytics UI, navigate to Admin -> Report Suites and you will get a list of your report suites along with their identifiers next to the name.

After setting the GlobalCompanyId, RSID and OAuth connection properties, you are ready to connect to Adobe Analytics.

When you configure the connection, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

You can then choose the Adobe Analytics entities you want to allow the API Server to access by clicking Settings -> Resources.

Additionally, click Settings -> Server and set the Default Format to XML (Atom) for compatibility with Tableau.

Authorize API Server Users

After determining the OData services you want to produce, authorize users by clicking Settings -> Users. The API Server uses authtoken-based authentication and supports the major authentication schemes. Access can also be restricted based on IP address; by default only connections to the local machine are allowed. You can authenticate as well as encrypt connections with SSL.

Create Real-Time Adobe Analytics Data Visualizations

Follow the steps below to create data visualizations based on the remote Adobe Analytics data:

1. In Tableau, select 'Connect to data'. In the 'On a server' section, click OData.

   

2. In the resulting wizard, enter the URL of the OData endpoint for the API Server. Append the name of the table you want to access to the OData entry URL. For example:

   https://your-server/api.rsc/AdsReport
3. Select the 'Use a Username and Password' option and enter the username and password of a user who has access to the API Server.

4. Tableau uses the table metadata exposed by the API Server to detect dimension and measure columns.

   

5. To view the Adobe Analytics data, right-click under the table name in the Data section of the dashboard and select the View Data option. The Adobe Analytics data will appear in Tableau.