Build Square-Connected Visualizations in datapine

datapine is a browser-based business intelligence platform. When paired with the CData Connect Cloud, you get access to your Square data directly from your datapine visualizations and dashboards. This article describes connecting to Square in CData Connect Cloud and building a simple Square-connected visualization in datapine.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL Server interface for Square, allowing you to query data from Square without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to Square, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested Square data quickly.

Configure Square Connectivity for datapine

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

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

   Square uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, you will need to register an app with Square to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL. See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.

   Additionally, you must specify the LocationId. You can retrieve the Ids for your Locations by querying the Locations table. Alternatively, you can set the LocationId in the search criteria of your query.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Square 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.

Connecting to Square from datapine

Once you configure your connection to Square in Connect Cloud, you are ready to connect to Square from datapine.

1. Log into datapine
2. Click Connect to navigate to the "Connect" page
3. Select MS SQL Server as the data source
4. In the Integration step, fill in the connection properties and click "Save and Proceed"
   • Set the Internal Name
   • Set Database Name to the name of the connection we just configured (e.g. Square1)
   • Set Host / IP to "tds.cdata.com"
   • Set Username to your Connect Cloud username (e.g. user@mydomain.com)
   • Set Password to the corresponding PAT
   • Set Database Port to "14333"
5. In the Data Schema step, select the tables and fields to visualize and click "Save and Proceed"
6. In the References step, define any relationships between your selected tables and click "Save and Proceed"
7. In the Data Transfer step, click "Go to Analyzer"

Visualize Square Data in datapine

After connecting to CData Connect Cloud, you are ready to visualize your Square data in datapine. Simply select the dimensions and measures you wish to visualize!

Having connect to Square from datapine, you are now able to visualize and analyze real-time Square data no matter where you are. To get live data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from datapine, try CData Connect Cloud today!