Connect and Visualize Live Airtable Data in Databricks Lakehouse Federation with CData Connect AI

Databricks Lakehouse Federation enables organizations to query and integrate data from multiple sources without requiring data movement. It allows federated queries across databases, data warehouses, and lakehouses, providing a unified interface for data analysis and management within Databricks. When combined with CData Connect AI, it enables seamless access to Airtable data for data virtualization, while also supporting data lineage and fine-grained access control.

This article explains how to use CData Connect AI to establish a live connection to Airtable and how to access live Airtable data from the Databricks platform.

CData Connect AI offers a seamless SQL Server, cloud-to-cloud interface for Airtable, enabling you to effortlessly create dashboards and visualizations using live Airtable data in Databricks. While building visualizations, Databricks requires SQL queries to retrieve the necessary data. With built-in optimized data processing, CData Connect AI pushes all supported SQL operations (such as filters and JOINs) directly to Airtable, utilizing server-side processing for fast and efficient data retrieval of Airtable data.

Configure Airtable connectivity for Databricks in CData Connect AI

To work with Airtable data in Databricks - Lakehouse Federation, you need to connect to Airtable from Connect AI and provide user access to the connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection

2. Select "Airtable" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source

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.
   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Airtable Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
   
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 and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Airtable data from Databricks.

Connecting live Airtable data in Databricks

Follow these steps to establish a connection from Databricks to the CData Connect AI Virtual SQL Server API.

1. Log into Databricks.
2. Navigate to SQL Warehouses and start any warehouse of your choice. 👁 Start SQL Warehouse
   
3. In the navigation pane, select Catalog. Click and select Create a connection. 👁 Create a connection
   
4. In the Connection basics section (or Step 1 of Set up connection page), enter the following connection details and click Next:
   • Connection name: a user-defined connection name.
   • Connection type: select SQL Server from the drop-down list.
   • Auth type: select Username and password.
   👁 Add connection basics details
   
5. In the Authentication section (or Step 2), enter the required authentication details, and click Next:
   • Host: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: 14333
   • User: enter your CData Connect AI username, displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect AI interface. For example, [email protected]
   • Password: enter the PAT generated and copied in the previous section.
   👁 Add authentication details
   
6. In the Connection details section (or Step 3), enable the Trust server certificate checkbox and select the appropriate Application intent. Click Create Connection. 👁 Add connection details
   
7. In the Catalog basics section (or Step 4), enter the required details and click Create catalog:
   • Catalog name: enter a name of your choice
   • Connection: this will be the Databricks connection you defined earlier
   • Database: enter your Airtable connection name (for example, Airtable1)
   👁 Add catalog basics details
   
8. In the Access section (or Step 5), assign the Workspace, User access rights, and Grant read or edit privileges to the catalog. 👁 Add the access rights
   👁 Grant the access rights
   
9. Click Next > Save to save all the details for the catalog. 👁 Save the catalog details and set up the connection
   

Access the catalog and visualize live Airtable data in Databricks

To access the newly created catalog and create a dashboard to visualize live Airtable data in Databricks, follow these steps:

1. Select the catalog and expand it. A list of tables from Airtable will appear on the screen. 👁 Select and expand the catalog
   
2. Choose the desired table and click the Overview tab to view the table metadata. 👁 Select Overview
   👁 View the table metadata
   
3. Click the Sample Data tab to view real-time data in the table. 👁 Select Sample Data to view the table data
   
4. Now, click Create at the top right corner and select Dashboard. 👁 Create a new dashboard
   
5. Manually create a visualization by selecting at least one field in the visualization editor from the widget, or choose one of the visualization options suggested by Databricks AI. 👁 Create the dashboard manually or using the Databricks AI
   
6. Once the visualization is created, edit the details in the widget settings of the dashboard. 👁 Visualization is created
   
7. Click Publish to publish the dashboard report. 👁 Publish the dashboard
   

Live access to Airtable data from cloud applications

At this stage, you have established a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Airtable data in Databricks. This enables you to create dashboards to monitor and visualize your data seamlessly.

For more details on accessing live data from over 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources through cloud applications like Databricks, visit our Connect AI page. As always, let us know if you have any questions during your evaluation. Our world-class CData Support Team is always available to help!