Redash is a collaboration tool that lets you query, visualize, and share your data. When paired with
CData Connect AI, Redash gets access to live Airtable data. This article demonstrates how to connect to Airtable
using Connect AI and work with live Airtable data in Redash.
CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL Server interface for Airtable, allowing you to query data from
Airtable without replicating the data to a natively supported database.
Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported SQL operations
(filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to Airtable, leveraging server-side processing to return the
requested Airtable data quickly.
Configure Airtable Connectivity for Redash
Connectivity to Airtable from Redash is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Airtable data in Redash, we start by creating and configuring a Airtable connection.
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Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection
- Select "Airtable" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source
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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)
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Click Save & Test
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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.
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Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
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On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
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Give the PAT a name and click Create.
👁 Creating a new PAT
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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 Redash.
Connect to Airtable from Redash using Connect AI
To establish a connection from Redash to CData Connect AI using the Virtual SQL Server, follow these steps:
- Log into Redash.
- Click the settings widget on the top right.
- Click New Data Source.
- Select Microsoft SQL Server as the Data Source Type.
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On the configuration tab, set the following properties:
- Database Name: enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect AI data source you want to connect to (for example, Salesforce1).
- Server: enter the virtual SQL Server host name (tds.cdata.com)
- User: enter your CData Connect AI username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect AI interface. For example, [email protected].
- Password: enter the PAT you generated on the Settings page.
- Port: enter 14333
👁 Configuring the connection to Connect AI from Redash.
- Click Create.
- Click Test Connection to ensure that the connection is configured properly.
You can now work with live Airtable data in Redash.
Get CData Connect AI
To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from Redash,
try CData Connect AI today!
