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URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/bigquery-cloud-appsheet.rst

⇱ Create BigQuery-Connected Business Apps in AppSheet

Create BigQuery-Connected Business Apps in AppSheet

👁 Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Connect to BigQuery Data via CData Connect AI in Google AppSheet and create custom business applications with real-time access to BigQuery data.

Google AppSheet is a no-code development platform for application software, enabling users to design mobile, tablet, and web applications. When combined with CData Connect AI, you gain immediate cloud-to-cloud access to BigQuery data for business applications. This article outlines the process of connecting to BigQuery using Connect AI and constructing a basic app from BigQuery data within AppSheet.

CData Connect AI offers a dedicated cloud-to-cloud interface for BigQuery, enabling the creation of reports directly from live BigQuery data within AppSheet, all without the need for data replication to a native database. When you design applications that interact with data, AppSheet formulates SQL queries to retrieve the required information. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect AI efficiently channels all supported SQL operations, including filters and JOINs, directly to BigQuery. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly deliver the requested BigQuery data.

About BigQuery Data Integration

CData simplifies access and integration of live Google BigQuery data. Our customers leverage CData connectivity to:

  • Simplify access to BigQuery with broad out-of-the-box support for authentication schemes, including OAuth, OAuth JWT, and GCP Instance.
  • Enhance data workflows with Bi-directional data access between BigQuery and other applications.
  • Perform key BigQuery actions like starting, retrieving, and canceling jobs; deleting tables; or insert job loads through SQL stored procedures.

Most CData customers are using Google BigQuery as their data warehouse and so use CData solutions to migrate business data from separate sources into BigQuery for comprehensive analytics. Other customers use our connectivity to analyze and report on their Google BigQuery data, with many customers using both solutions.

For more details on how CData enhances your Google BigQuery experience, check out our blog post: https://www.cdata.com/blog/what-is-bigquery


Getting Started


Configure BigQuery Connectivity for AppSheet

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

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
    2. 👁 Adding a Connection
  2. Select "BigQuery" from the Add Connection panel
    3. 👁 Selecting a data source
  3. BigQuery uses OAuth to authenticate. Click "Sign in" to authenticate with BigQuery. 👁 Authenticating with OAuth (Salesforce is shown).
  4. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add BigQuery 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 BigQuery data from AppSheet.

Connect to BigQuery from AppSheet

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from AppSheet to create a new BigQuery data source.

  1. Log into AppSheet
  2. Click "My account" in the menu
  3. Click the Sources tab and add a new data source 👁 Creating a new data source
  4. Select Cloud Database and set the connection information
    • Type: Sql Server
    • Server: tds.cdata.com,14333
    • Database: the BigQuery connection, for example, GoogleBigQuery1
    • Username: a Connect AI user, for example, [email protected]
    • Password: the PAT for the above Connect AI user
    • SSL: Require SSL
    👁 Connecting to Connect AI
  5. Click "Test Connection"
  6. Click "Authorize Access"

Create an App

Once you create the data source for BigQuery, you can start building apps on BigQuery data. Start by clicking "My apps" in the menu.

  1. Click to create a new app and select "Start with your own data"
  2. Name the app and select an appropriate category, based on your data
  3. Select the newly created data source
  4. Select the table or view with the data you want 👁 Selecting a table

At this point, you can configure the design of your app, selecting which columns from the selected table to display, use as labels, and more. Preview the app in the preview panel and then publish or share it when ready.

👁 Configuring an app connected to Connect AI.

To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, try CData Connect AI today!