Create Reports from CSV Data in Looker Studio

Looker Studio, formerly known as Google Data Studio, empowers users to craft customized reports featuring data visualizations that can be shared with clients while reflecting your brand identity. When combined with CData Connect AI, you gain immediate cloud-to-cloud access to CSV data to create visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article provides step-by-step instructions on establishing a virtual database for CSV and generating reports from CSV data within Looker Studio.

CData Connect AI offers a seamless cloud-to-cloud interface tailored for CSV, making it straightforward to construct reports directly from live CSV data within Looker Studio without the need for data replication. As you create visualizations, Looker Studio generates queries to retrieve data. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect AI efficiently channels all supported query operations, including filters, JOINs, and more, directly to CSV. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly provide the requested CSV data.

Configure CSV Connectivity for Looker Studio

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

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

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

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

   Connecting to Local or Cloud-Stored (Box, Google Drive, Amazon S3, SharePoint) CSV Files

   CData Drivers let you work with CSV files stored locally and stored in cloud storage services like Box, Amazon S3, Google Drive, or SharePoint, right where they are.

   Setting connection properties for local files

   Set the URI property to local folder path.

   Setting connection properties for files stored in Amazon S3

   To connect to CSV file(s) within Amazon S3, set the URI property to the URI of the Bucket and Folder where the intended CSV files exist. In addition, at least set these properties:

   • AWSAccessKey: AWS Access Key (username)
   • AWSSecretKey: AWS Secret Key

   Setting connection properties for files stored in Box

   To connect to CSV file(s) within Box, set the URI property to the URI of the folder that includes the intended CSV file(s). Use the OAuth authentication method to connect to Box.

   Dropbox

   To connect to CSV file(s) within Dropbox, set the URI proprerty to the URI of the folder that includes the intended CSV file(s). Use the OAuth authentication method to connect to Dropbox. Either User Account or Service Account can be used to authenticate.

   SharePoint Online (SOAP)

   To connect to CSV file(s) within SharePoint with SOAP Schema, set the URI proprerty to the URI of the document library that includes the intended CSV file. Set User, Password, and StorageBaseURL.

   SharePoint Online REST

   To connect to CSV file(s) within SharePoint with REST Schema, set the URI proprerty to the URI of the document library that includes the intended CSV file. StorageBaseURL is optional. If not set, the driver will use the root drive. OAuth is used to authenticate.

   Google Drive

   To connect to CSV file(s) within Google Drive, set the URI property to the URI of the folder that includes the intended CSV file(s). Use the OAuth authentication method to connect and set InitiateOAuth to GETANDREFRESH.

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add CSV Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions
   

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to CSV data from Looker Studio.

Visualize Live CSV Data from Looker Studio

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Looker Studio to create a new CSV data source and build a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into Looker Studio, click data sources, create a new data source, and choose CData Connect AI Connector.
👁 Create a new connection in Looker Studio

2. Click Authorize and allow access to your Google account. 👁 Granting permissions to the Connector
   
3. Click Authorize to authenticate with your CData Connect AI instance 👁 Authenticating with CData Connect AI
   
4. In the CData Connect AI Connector in Looker Studio select Connections to import from the dropdown and click Next
👁 Importing from Connections

5. Now select a Connection (e.g. CSV1) and click Next 👁 Selecting a Connection
   
6. Select a Table (e.g. Customer) or use a Custom Query and click Connect to continue 👁 Selecting a Table
   
7. If needed, modify columns, click Create Report, and add the data source to the report.
👁 Configuring column definitions

8. Select a visualization style and add it to the report.
9. Select Dimensions and Measures to customize your visualization.
👁 Visualizing CSV data in Looker Studio

Live Access to CSV Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live CSV data from your Looker Studio workbook. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating CSV data.

Try CData Connect AI and get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.