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Prepare, Blend, and Analyze Xero Data in Alteryx Designer


Build workflows to access live Xero data for self-service data analytics.

Alteryx is a software platform that allows people to work with data more easily. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, Alteryx provides instant access to Xero data from your data automation processes. This article demonstrates how to connect to Xero using Connect Cloud and work with Xero data in Alteryx.

CData Connect Cloud offers a dedicated SQL Server interface for Xero, facilitating data querying without the need for data replication to a native database. With built-in optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect Cloud efficiently directs all supported SQL operations, including filters and JOINs, straight to Xero. This harnesses server-side processing to rapidly retrieve the desired Xero data.

About Xero Data Integration

Accessing and integrating live data from Xero has never been easier with CData. Customers rely on CData connectivity to:

  • Connect to Xero Accounts and both US and Australian Payroll APIs.
  • Read, write, update, and delete ServiceNow objects like Customers, Transactions, Invoices, Sales Receipts and more.
  • Use SQL stored procedures for actions like adding items to a cart, submitting orders, and downloading attachments.
  • Work with accounting, payroll, file, fixed asset, and project data.

Customers regularly integrate their Xero data with preferred tools, like Tableau, Qlik Sense, or Excel, and integrate Xero data into their database or data warehouse.


Getting Started


Configure Xero Connectivity for Alteryx

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

  1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
  2. Select "Xero" from the Add Connection panel
  3. Xero uses OAuth to authenticate. Click "Sign in" to authenticate with Xero.
  4. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Xero Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Connect to Xero from Alteryx

Once you establish a connection to Xero in Connect Cloud, you are ready to work with Xero data in Alteryx. To begin, download the ODBC Driver for CData Connect.

  1. In the ODBC Driver for CData Connect, select OAuth and click Test Connection. Then enter your CData Connect Cloud Credentials and Sign in.
  2. Open Alteryx Designer and create a new workflow.
  3. Drag and drop a new input data tool onto the workflow.
  4. Click the drop down under Connect a File or Database and select the Data sources tab.
  5. Navigate to the end of the page and click on ODBC under Generic connection.
  6. Select the DSN that you configured for use in Alteryx.
  7. In the wizard that opens, drag and drop the table to be queried in the Query Builder box. Select the fields by checking the boxes that you wish to include in your query. Where possible, the complex queries generated by the filters and aggregations will be pushed down to your data source, while any unsupported operations (which can include SQL functions and JOIN operations) will be managed client-side by the CData SQL engine embedded in the connector.

To further customize the dataset, you can open the SQL Editor and modify the query manually, adding clauses, aggregations, and other operations to ensure that you are retrieving exactly the data desired.

With the query defined, you are ready to work with your data in Alteryx Designer.

Get CData Connect Cloud

To get live data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your SQL Server database, try CData Connect Cloud today!

Ready to get started?

Learn more about CData Connect Cloud or sign up for free trial access:

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