How to integrate Metabase with PCA Sales Data

Metabase is an open source data visualization tool that allows users to create interactive dashboards. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, users can easily create visualizations and dashboards linked to live PCA Sales data. This article describes how to connect to PCA Sales and build a simple visualization using PCA Sales data.

CData Connect provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for PCA Sales, allowing you to easily integrate with live PCA Sales data in Metabase — without replicating the data. Connect looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Metabase and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to PCA Sales, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return PCA Sales data.

Configure PCA Sales Connectivity for Metabase

Connectivity to PCA Sales from Metabase is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with PCA Sales data from Metabase, we start by creating and configuring a PCA Sales connection.

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

   In order to authenticate using the OAuth, specify the following:

   • AuthScheme: Set to OAuth.

   In order to authenticate using the OAuth Password, specify the following:

   • AuthScheme: Set to OAuthPassword.
   • User: Enter the PCA Sales username.
   • Password: Enter the PCA Sales password.
   • ServiceId: Enter the Service ID used to connect tot he PCA API server.
   • ServicePassword: Enter the Service Password for the above Service ID.

   For both authentication methods, specify the following:

   • Data Center: Enter the name for the PCA API Server.
   • Default Data Area: Enter the data area to which you want to connect.
   • Product Code: Enter "Kon20" or "Acc20."

   For more information, refer to the Help documentation.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add PCA Sales 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 PCA Sales data from Metabase.

Connect to CData Connect from Metabase

After creating the virtual database, navigate to your Metabase instance. Use the SQL Server interface to connect to Connect Cloud.

1. Navigate to the administration screen (Settings -> Admin) and click "Add Database" from the "Databases" tab
2. Configure the connection to Connect Cloud and click "Save"
   • Database type: Select "SQL Server"
   • Name: Name the connection (e.g. "PCA Sales (Connect Cloud)")
   • Host: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: 14333
   • Database name: The name of the connection you just created (e.g. PCASales1)
   • Username: A Connect Cloud username (e.g. user@mydomain.com)
   • Password: The PAT for the above Connect Cloud user
   • Click to Use a secure connection (SSL)
   

Execute PCA Sales Data with Metabase

Once you configure the connection to Connect Cloud, you can query PCA Sales and build visualizations.

1. Use the "Write SQL" tool to retrieve the PCA Sales data
2. Write a SQL query based on the PCA Sales connection in CData Connect Cloud, e.g.
   
   

   SELECT LotId, LotNo FROM MasterLot WHERE SyoninCode = 'my_syohin_code'

   
3. Navigate to the "Visualization" screen, choose a visualization, and configure the visualization

More Information & Free Trial

At this point, you have built a simple visualization from PCA Sales data in Metabase. You can continue to work with live PCA Sales data in Metabase just like you would any SQL Server database. For more information on creating a live connection to PCA Sales (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect Cloud page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live PCA Sales data in Metabase today.