How to integrate Metabase with OData Services

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 OData services. This article describes how to connect to OData and build a simple visualization using OData services.

CData Connect provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for OData, allowing you to easily integrate with live OData services 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 OData, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return OData services.

Configure OData Connectivity for Metabase

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

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

   The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid OData user credentials. In addition, you will need to specify a URL to a valid OData server organization root or OData services file.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add OData 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 OData services 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. "OData (Connect Cloud)")
   • Host: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: 14333
   • Database name: The name of the connection you just created (e.g. OData1)
   • 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 OData Services with Metabase

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

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

   SELECT Orders.Freight, Customers.ContactName FROM Customers INNER JOIN Orders ON Customers.CustomerId=Orders.CustomerId

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 OData services in Metabase. You can continue to work with live OData services in Metabase just like you would any SQL Server database. For more information on creating a live connection to OData (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect Cloud page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live OData services in Metabase today.