Analyze Airtable Data in SAP Analytics Cloud

SAP Analytics Cloud is a cloud-based business intelligence platform. CData Connect Cloud creates a pure, cloud-to-cloud connection to Airtable and can be used to generate an OData API (natively supported in Analytics Cloud) for Airtable. By pairing SAP Analytics Cloud with CData Connect Cloud, you get true cloud-to-cloud connectivity to all of your SaaS and cloud-based Big Data and NoSQL sources — no need to migrate your data or write your integrations. Simply connect to Connect Cloud as you would any other OData service and get instant, consolidated access to all of your data.

In this article, we walk through connecting to Airtable from SAP Analytics Cloud (through CData Connect Cloud) to create a model and build a simple dashboard.

Connect to Airtable from SAP Analytics Cloud

To work with live Airtable data in SAP Analytics Cloud, we need to connect to Airtable from Connect Cloud, provide user access to the connection, and create OData endpoints for the Airtable data.

(Optional) Add a New Connect Cloud User

As needed, create Users to connect to Airtable through Connect Cloud.

1. Navigate to the Users page and click Invite Users
2. Enter the new user's email address and click Send to invite the user
3. You can review and edit users from the Users page

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.

Connect to Airtable from Connect Cloud

CData Connect Cloud uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

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

   APIKey, BaseId and TableNames parameters are required to connect to Airtable. ViewNames is an optional parameter where views of the tables may be specified.

   • APIKey : API Key of your account. To obtain this value, after logging in go to Account. In API section click Generate API key.
   • BaseId : Id of your base. To obtain this value, it is in the same section as the APIKey. Click on Airtable API, or navigate to https://airtable.com/api and select a base. In the introduction section you can find "The ID of this base is appxxN2ftedc0nEG7."
   • TableNames : A comma separated list of table names for the selected base. These are the same names of tables as found in the UI.
   • ViewNames : A comma separated list of views in the format of (table.view) names. These are the same names of the views as found in the UI.
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Airtable Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add Airtable OData Endpoints in Connect Cloud

After connecting to Airtable, create OData Endpoints for the desired table(s).

1. Navigate to the OData page and click Add to create new OData endpoints
2. Select the Airtable connection (e.g. Airtable1) and click Next
3. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm

With the connection and OData endpoints configured, you are ready to connect to Airtable data from SAP Analytics Cloud.

Create a Model of Airtable Data in SAP Analytics Cloud

With the connection to Airtable configured and the OData endpoint(s) created, we can create a Model for Airtable data in SAP Analytics Cloud.

1. Log into your Analytics Cloud instance and click Create -> Model from the menu.
2. Choose "Get data from a datasource" and select "OData Services"
3. Choose an existing connection to your Connect Cloud OData or Create a new one:
   • Set Connection Name
   • Set Data Service URL to the Base URL for your OData API: https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/service
   • Set Authentication Type to Basic Authentication
   • Set User Name to the Connect Cloud user (e.g. user@mydomain.com)
   • Set Password to the PAT for the above user
4. Choose "Create a new query" and click Next
5. Name the Execute, select an OData endpoint (like SampleTable_1) and click Next
6. Drag the columns you wish to work with into the Selected Data workspace and click Create
7. At this point, a Draft Data source is created; click the draft to finalize the model
8. Perform any transformations, including creating calculated dimensions, location dimensions, and combining data sources, then click Create Model
9. Name your model and click OK

Build a Dashboard in SAP Analytics Cloud

With the model created, you are ready to create a dashboard in SAP Analytics Cloud based on Airtable data.

1. From the menu, click Create -> Story
2. Click on SAP Analytics Template (this article uses the "Dashboard" template)
3. Choose a layout and click Apply
4. From the More menu, select a visualization to insert (Chart)
5. Select a model to visualize
6. Select a structure and the required Measures and Dimensions
7. Save the store

More Information & Free Trial

Now, you have created a simple but powerful dashboard from live Airtable data. For more information on creating OData feeds from Airtable (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect Cloud page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live Airtable data in SAP Analytics Cloud.