How to integrate Metabase with Google Search Results

Metabase is an open source data visualization tool that allows users to create interactive dashboards. When paired with CData Connect AI, users can easily create visualizations and dashboards linked to live Google Search results. This article describes how to connect to Google Search and build a simple visualization using Google Search results.

CData Connect provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Google Search, allowing you to easily integrate with live Google Search results in Metabase — without replicating the data. Connect looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Metabase and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Google Search, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Google Search results.

Configure Google Search Connectivity for Metabase

Connectivity to Google Search from Metabase is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Google Search results from Metabase, we start by creating and configuring a Google Search connection.

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

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

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Google Search.

   To search with a Google custom search engine, you need to set the CustomSearchId and ApiKey connection properties.

   To obtain the CustomSearchId property, sign into Google Custom Search Engine and create a new search engine.

   To obtain the ApiKey property, you must enable the Custom Search API in the Google API Console.

   👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Google Search 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 Google Search results from Metabase.

Connect to CData Connect AI from Metabase

After creating the connection in Connect AI, navigate to your Metabase instance. Use the SQL Server interface to connect to Connect AI.

1. Navigate to the administration screen (Settings -> Admin) and click "Add Database" from the "Databases" tab 👁 Adding a new database connection to Metabase.
   
2. Configure the connection to Connect AI and click "Save"
   • Database type: Select "SQL Server"
   • Name: Name the connection (e.g. "Google Search (Connect AI)")
   • Host: tds.cdata.com
   • Port: 14333
   • Database name: The name of the connection you just created (e.g. GoogleSearch1)
   • Username: A Connect AI username (e.g. [email protected])
   • Password: The PAT previously created
   • Click to Use a secure connection (SSL)
   👁 Configuring the connection to Connect AI.
   

Execute Google Search Results with Metabase

Once you configure the connection to Connect AI, you can query Google Search and build visualizations.

1. Use the "Write SQL" tool to retrieve the Google Search results 👁 Click the 'Write SQL' button.
   
2. Write a SQL query based on the Google Search connection in CData Connect AI, e.g.
   
   

   SELECT Title, ViewCount FROM VideoSearch WHERE SearchTerms = 'WayneTech'

   👁 Collected data (Salesforce is shown).
   
3. Navigate to the "Visualization" screen, choose a visualization, and configure the visualization 👁 Collected data (Salesforce is shown).
   

More Information & Free Trial

At this point, you have built a simple visualization from Google Search results in Metabase. You can continue to work with live Google Search results in Metabase just like you would any SQL Server database. For more information on creating a live connection to Google Search (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect AI page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live Google Search results in Metabase today.