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Access LDAP Objects as OData Feeds in Tableau
Use the Tableau Desktop business intelligence tool to connect to LDAP objects using the API Server.
The CData API Server, when paired with the ADO.NET Provider for LDAP (or any of 200+ other ADO.NET Providers), provides LDAP objects as OData Web services. This article will explain how to use the API Server to provide the underlying connectivity to LDAP objects in Tableau's business intelligence tool.
Set Up the API Server
Follow the steps below to begin producing secure LDAP 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 LDAP
After you deploy the API Server and the ADO.NET Provider for LDAP, provide authentication values and other connection properties needed to connect to LDAP by clicking Settings -> Connections and adding a new connection in the API Server administration console.
To establish a connection, the following properties under the Authentication section must be provided:
- Valid User and Password credentials (e.g., Domain\BobF or cn=Bob F,ou=Employees,dc=Domain).
- Server information, including the IP or host name of the Server, as well as the Port.
BaseDN: This will limit the scope of LDAP searches to the height of the distinguished name provided.
Note: Specifying a narrow BaseDN may greatly increase performance; for example, cn=users,dc=domain will only return results contained within cn=users and its children.
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 LDAP 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 LDAP Objects Visualizations
Follow the steps below to create data visualizations based on the remote LDAP objects:
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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/User -
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 LDAP objects, right-click under the table name in the Data section of the dashboard and select the View Data option. The LDAP objects will appear in Tableau.
