Build BigCommerce Visualizations in Tableau Cloud

Tableau Cloud is an analytics platform fully hosted in the cloud. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to BigCommerce data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to connect to BigCommerce and build visualizations from BigCommerce data in Tableau Cloud.

CData Connect AI provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for BigCommerce, allowing you to easily build visualizations from live BigCommerce data in Tableau Cloud without installing connectors or publishing worksheets and data sources from Tableau Desktop. As you build visualizations, Tableau Cloud generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to BigCommerce, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return BigCommerce data.

Configure BigCommerce Connectivity for Tableau Cloud

To work with BigCommerce data from Tableau Cloud, we need to connect to BigCommerce from Connect AI, provide user access to the connection, and create a Workspace for the BigCommerce data.

Connect to BigCommerce from Connect AI

CData Connect AI uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

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

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

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to BigCommerce.

   BigCommerce authentication is based on the standard OAuth flow. To authenticate, you must initially create an app via the Big Commerce developer platform where you can obtain an OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL. These three parameters will be set as connection properties to your driver.

   Additionally, in order to connect to your BigCommerce Store, you will need your StoreId. To find your Store Id please follow these steps:

   1. Log in to your BigCommerce account.
   2. From the Home Page, select Advanced Settings > API Accounts.
   3. Click Create API Account.
   4. A text box named API Path will appear on your screen.
   5. Inside you can see a URL of the following structure: https://api.bigcommerce.com/stores/{Store Id}/v3.
   6. As demonstrated above, your Store Id will be between the 'stores/' and '/v3' path paramters.
   7. Once you have retrieved your Store Id you can either click Cancel or proceed in creating an API Account in case you do not have one already.
   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add BigCommerce 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.

Configure BigCommerce Endpoints for Tableau Cloud

After connecting to BigCommerce, create a workspace for your desired table(s).

1. Navigate to the Workspaces page and click Add to create a new Workspace (or select an existing workspace). 👁 The Workspaces page.
   👁 Adding a new Workspace.
   
2. Click Add to add new assets to the Workspace.
3. Select the BigCommerce connection (e.g. BigCommerce1) and click Next. 👁 Selecting an Asset (Salesforce is shown).
   
4. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm. 👁 Selecting Tables (Salesforce is shown).
   
5. Make note of the OData Service URL for your workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}

With the connection, PAT, and Workspace configured, you are ready to connect to BigCommerce data from Tableau Cloud.

Visualize Live BigCommerce Data in Tableau Cloud

The steps below outline creating a new data source in Tableau Cloud based on the virtual BigCommerce database in Connect AI and building a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into Tableau Cloud, select a account, and create a new workbook.
2. In the new workbook, choose the OData Connector from the data wizard and fill in the values for your Connect AI instance. 👁 Selecting OData connector in Tableau Cloud
   
   • Set Server to the OData URL for your Workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}
   • Set Authentication to Username and Password
   • Set Username to your Connect AI username (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to a PAT for the above user
   👁 Connect to Connect AI from Tableau Cloud
   
3. Select your newly created database and the table(s) you wish to visualize (defining relationships for JOINad tables as needed).
👁 Choosing a Database and Tables

4. Select Dimensions and Measures and configure your visualization.
👁 Visualizing BigCommerce data in Tableau Cloud

Real-Time Access to BigCommerce Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live BigCommerce data from your Tableau Cloud workbook. You can create new visualizations, build dashboards, and more, with no need to publish data sources and workbooks from Tableau Desktop. For more information on gaining live access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources from cloud applications like Tableau Cloud, refer to our Connect AI page.