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Access Google Analytics Data as OData Feeds in Tableau
Use the Tableau Desktop business intelligence tool to connect to Google Analytics data using the API Server.
The CData API Server, when paired with the ADO.NET Provider for Google Analytics (or any of 200+ other ADO.NET Providers), provides Google Analytics data as OData Web services. This article will explain how to use the API Server to provide the underlying connectivity to Google Analytics data in Tableau's business intelligence tool.
Set Up the API Server
Follow the steps below to begin producing secure Google 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 Google Analytics
After you deploy the API Server and the ADO.NET Provider for Google Analytics, provide authentication values and other connection properties needed to connect to Google Analytics by clicking Settings -> Connections and adding a new connection in the API Server administration console.
Google uses the OAuth authentication standard. To access Google APIs on behalf on individual users, you can use the embedded credentials or you can register your own OAuth app.
OAuth also enables you to use a service account to connect on behalf of users in a Google Apps domain. To authenticate with a service account, register an application to obtain the OAuth JWT values.
In addition to the OAuth values, set Profile to the profile you want to connect to. This can be set to either the Id or website URL for the Profile. If not specified, the first Profile returned will be used.
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 Google 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 Google Analytics Data Visualizations
Follow the steps below to create data visualizations based on the remote Google Analytics data:
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In Tableau, select 'Connect to data'. In the 'On a server' section, click OData.
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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/Traffic -
Select the
'Use a Username and Password' option and enter the username and password of a user who has access to the API Server.
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Tableau uses the table metadata exposed by the API Server to detect dimension and measure columns.
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To view the Google Analytics data, right-click under the table name in the Data section of the dashboard and select the View Data option. The Google Analytics data will appear in Tableau.
