Access API Data as OData Feeds in Tableau

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

Set Up the API Server

Follow the steps below to begin producing secure API 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 API

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

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"

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 API 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 API Data Visualizations

Follow the steps below to create data visualizations based on the remote API 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/posts
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 API data, right-click under the table name in the Data section of the dashboard and select the View Data option. The API data will appear in Tableau.