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URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/airtable-cloud-microstrategy.rst

⇱ Connect to Live Airtable Data in MicroStrategy through CData Connect AI

Connect to Live Airtable Data in MicroStrategy through CData Connect AI

👁 Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Create a live connection to Airtable Data in CData Connect AI and connect to your Airtable data from MicroStrategy.

MicroStrategy is an analytics and mobility platform that enables data-driven innovation. When you pair MicroStrategy with CData Connect AI, you gain database-like access to live Airtable data from MicroStrategy, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. In this article, we walk through connecting to Airtable in Connect AI and connecting to Connect AI in MicroStrategy to create a simple visualization of Airtable data.

As a cloud-based integration platform, Connect AI is ideal for working with cloud-based BI and analytics tools. With no servers to configure or data proxies to set up, you can simply use the web-based UI to create a live connection to Airtable and connect from MicroStrategy to start performing analytics based on live Airtable data.

Configure Airtable Connectivity for Microstrategy

Connectivity to Airtable from Microstrategy is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Airtable data from Microstrategy, we start by creating and configuring a Airtable connection.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
    2. 👁 Adding a Connection
  2. Select "Airtable" from the Add Connection panel
    3. 👁 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 MicroStrategy.

Connect to and Visualize Airtable Data Using MicroStrategy

You can connect to Airtable in MicroStrategy by adding a data source based on the native SQL Server functionality. Once you have created a data source, you can build dynamic visualizations of Airtable data in MicroStrategy.

  1. Open MicroStrategy and select your account.
  2. Click Add External Data, select Databases, and use Select Tables as the Import Option. 👁 Adding External Data
  3. In the Import from Tables wizard, click to add a new Data Source.
  4. Select "SQL Server" in the Database menu and select "SQL Server 2017" in the Version menu.
  5. Sat the connection properties as follows:
    • Server Name: tds.cdata.com
    • Port Number: 14333
    • Database Name: the name of your Airtable connection (e.g. Airtable1)
    • User: a Connect AI user
    • Password: the PAT for your Connect AI user
    • Data Source Name: a name for the new external data source, like "CData Cloud Airtable"
  6. Expand the menu for the new data source and choose "Edit Catalog Options"👁 Edit the catalog options.
  7. Edit the "SQL statement retrieve columns ..." query to include TABLE_SCHEMA = '#?Schema_Name?#' in the WHERE clause, and click Apply and then OK (the complete query is below). 

    SELECT DISTINCT 
 TABLE_SCHEMA NAME_SPACE, 
 TABLE_NAME TAB_NAME, 
 COLUMN_NAME COL_NAME, 
 (CASE 
 WHEN 
 (DATA_TYPE LIKE '%char' AND (CHARACTER_SET_NAME='utf8' OR CHARACTER_SET_NAME='usc2')) 
 THEN 
 CONCAT('a',DATA_TYPE) 
 ELSE 
 DATA_TYPE 
 END) DATA_TYPE, 
 CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH DATA_LEN, 
 NUMERIC_PRECISION DATA_PREC, 
 NUMERIC_SCALE DATA_SCALE 
FROM 
 INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS 
WHERE 
 TABLE_NAME 
IN 
 (#TABLE_LIST#) AND TABLE_SCHEMA='#?Schema_Name?#' 
ORDER BY 
 1,2,3
  8. Select the new data source and select the Namespace that corresponds to your virtual Airtable database (like Airtable1).
  9. Drag tables into the pane to insert then. 👁 Select tables to insert.
    Note: Since we create a live connection, we can insert whole tables and utilize the filtering and aggregation features native to the MicroStrategy products to customize our datasets.
  10. Click Finish, choose the option to connect live, save the query, and choose the option to create a new dossier. Live connections are possible and effective, thanks to high-performance data processing native to CData Connect AI. 👁 Save the query and create a new dossier.
  11. Choose a visualization, choose fields to display, and apply any filters to create a new visualization of Airtable data. Data types are discovered automatically through dynamic metadata discovery. Where possible, the complex queries generated by the filters and aggregations will be pushed down to Airtable, while any unsupported operations (which can include SQL functions and JOIN operations) will be managed by the CData SQL engine embedded in Connect AI. 👁 Visualize Airtable data.
  12. Once you have finished configuring the dossier, click File -> Save.

Using CData Connect AI with MicroStrategy, you can easily create robust visualizations and reports on Airtable data. For more information on connecting to Airtable (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect AI page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live Airtable data in MicroStrategy.