Visualize Live Airtable Data in Power BI (via CData Connect AI)

Power BI transforms your company's data into rich visuals for you to collect and organize so you can focus on what matters to you. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get access to Airtable data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to use CData Connect to create a live connection to Airtable, connect to Airtable data from Power BI and then create reports on Airtable data in Power BI.

Configure Airtable Connectivity for Power BI

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

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Airtable data from Power BI.

Query Airtable Tables

Follow the steps below to build a query to pull Airtable data into the report:

1. Open Power BI Desktop and click Get Data -> Online Services -> CData Connect AI and click "Connect"
2. Click "Sign in" and authenticate with your CData Connect AI account 👁 Authenticating with Connect AI
   
3. After signing in, click "Connect" 👁 Connecting to Connect AI
   
4. Select tables in the Navigator dialog 👁 The available tables. (Salesforce tables are shown)
   
5. Click Load to establish the connection to your Airtable data from Power BI

Create Airtable Data Visualizations

After connecting to the data into Power BI, you can create data visualizations in the Report view by dragging fields from the Fields pane onto the canvas. Select the dimensions and measures you wish to visualize along with the chart type.

Click Refresh to synchronize your report with any changes to the data.

Live Access to Airtable Data from Data Applications

With CData Connect AI you have a direct connection to Airtable data from Power BI. You can import more data, create new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Airtable data.

To get SQL data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources (including Airtable) directly from your on-premise BI, reporting, ETL and other data applications, visit the CData Connect AI page and start a free trial.