Connect and Visualize Live API Data in Databricks Lakehouse Federation with CData Connect Cloud

Databricks Lakehouse Federation enables organizations to query and integrate data from multiple sources without requiring data movement. It allows federated queries across databases, data warehouses, and lakehouses, providing a unified interface for data analysis and management within Databricks. When combined with CData Connect Cloud, it enables seamless access to API data for data virtualization, while also supporting data lineage and fine-grained access control.

This article explains how to use CData Connect Cloud to establish a live connection to API and how to access live API data from the Databricks platform.

CData Connect Cloud offers a seamless SQL Server, cloud-to-cloud interface for your API, enabling you to effortlessly create dashboards and visualizations using live API data in Databricks. While building visualizations, Databricks requires SQL queries to retrieve the necessary data. With built-in optimized data processing, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (such as filters and JOINs) directly to your API, utilizing server-side processing for fast and efficient data retrieval of API data.

Configure your API connectivity for Databricks in CData Connect Cloud

To work with API data in Databricks - Lakehouse Federation, you need to connect to your API from Connect Cloud and provide user access to the connection.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection.
2. Select "API" from the Add Connection panel.
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to your API.

   To connect to your API, configure the following properties on the Global Settings page:

   • In Authentication, select the Type and fill in the required properties
   • In Headers, add the required HTTP headers for your API
   • In Pagination, select the Type and fill in the required properties

   After the configuring the global settings, navigate to the Tables to add tables. For each table you wish to add:

   1. Click "+ Add"
   2. Set the Name for the table
   3. Set Request URL to the API endpoint you wish to work with
   4. (Optional) In Parameters, add the required URL Parameters for your API endpoint
   5. (Optional) In Headers, add the required HTTP headers for the API endpoint
   6. In Table Data click " Configure"
   7. Review the response from the API and click "Next"
   8. Select which element to use as the Repeated Elements and which elements to use as Columns and click "Next"
   9. Preview the tabular model of the API response and click "Confirm"

4. Click Create & Test.
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add your API 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.

1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile
2. On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT
3. Give your 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, you are ready to connect to API data from Databricks.

Connecting live API data in Databricks

Follow these steps to establish a connection from Databricks to the CData Connect Cloud Virtual SQL Server API.

1. Log into Databricks.
2. Navigate to SQL Warehouses and start any warehouse of your choice.
3. In the navigation pane, select Catalog. Click and select Create a connection.
4. In the Connection basics section (or Step 1 of Set up connection page), enter the following connection details and click Next:
   • Connection name: a user-defined connection name.
   • Connection type: select SQL Server from the drop-down list.
   • Auth type: select Username and password.
   
5. In the Authentication section (or Step 2), enter the required authentication details, and click Next:
   • Host: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: 14333
   • User: enter your CData Connect Cloud username, displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect Cloud interface. For example, test@cdata.com
   • Password: enter the PAT generated and copied in the previous section.
   
6. In the Connection details section (or Step 3), enable the Trust server certificate checkbox and select the appropriate Application intent. Click Create Connection.
7. In the Catalog basics section (or Step 4), enter the required details and click Create catalog:
   • Catalog name: enter a name of your choice
   • Connection: this will be the Databricks connection you defined earlier
   • Database: enter your API connection name (for example, API1)
   
8. In the Access section (or Step 5), assign the Workspace, User access rights, and Grant read or edit privileges to the catalog.
9. Click Next > Save to save all the details for the catalog.

Access the catalog and visualize live API data in Databricks

To access the newly created catalog and create a dashboard to visualize live API data in Databricks, follow these steps:

1. Select the catalog and expand it. A list of tables from API will appear on the screen.
2. Choose the desired table and click the Overview tab to view the table metadata.
3. Click the Sample Data tab to view real-time data in the table.
4. Now, click Create at the top right corner and select Dashboard.
5. Manually create a visualization by selecting at least one field in the visualization editor from the widget, or choose one of the visualization options suggested by Databricks AI.
6. Once the visualization is created, edit the details in the widget settings of the dashboard.
7. Click Publish to publish the dashboard report.

Live access to API data from cloud applications

At this stage, you have established a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live API data in Databricks. This enables you to create dashboards to monitor and visualize your data seamlessly.

For more details on accessing live data from over 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources through cloud applications like Databricks, visit our Connect Cloud page. As always, let us know if you have any questions during your evaluation. Our world-class CData Support Team is always available to help!