Looker is a business intelligence and big data analytics platform that helps you explore, analyze and share real-time business analytics. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to QuickBooks Online data for business applications. This article shows how to connect to QuickBooks Online in Connect AI and then connect to QuickBooks Online data in Looker.
CData Connect AI provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for QuickBooks Online, allowing you to build reports from live QuickBooks Online data in Looker — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. As you create applications to work with data, Looker 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 QuickBooks Online, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested QuickBooks Online data.
About QuickBooks Online Data Integration
CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from QuickBooks Online. Customers use CData connectivity to:
- Realize high-performance data reads thanks to push-down query optimization for complex operations like filters and aggregations.
- Read, write, update, and delete QuickBooks Online data.
- Run reports, download attachments, and send or void invoices directly from code using SQL stored procedures.
- Connect securely using OAuth and modern cryptography, including TLS 1.2, SHA-256, and ECC.
Many users access live QuickBooks Online data from preferred analytics tools like Power BI and Excel, directly from databases with federated access, and use CData solutions to easily integrate QuickBooks Online data with automated workflows for business-to-business communications.
For more information on how customers are solving problems with CData's QuickBooks Online solutions, refer to our blog: https://www.cdata.com/blog/360-view-of-your-customers.
Getting Started
Configure QuickBooks Online Connectivity for Looker
Connectivity to QuickBooks Online from Looker is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with QuickBooks Online data from Looker, we start by creating and configuring a QuickBooks Online connection.
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Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection
- Select "QuickBooks Online" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source
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QuickBooks Online uses OAuth to authenticate. Click "Sign in" to authenticate with QuickBooks Online.
👁 Authenticating with OAuth (Salesforce is shown).
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Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add QuickBooks Online 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 QuickBooks Online data from Looker.
Connect to QuickBooks Online in Looker
The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Looker to create a new QuickBooks Online data source.
- Log-in to Looker
- In the navigation pane, select Admin.
👁 Selecting Admin
- Under the Database category, select Connections.
👁 Selecting connections
- On the Connections page, click Add Connection.
👁 Adding a new connection
- Enter the connection settings:
- Name: the name for the connection in models.
- Dialect: select Microsoft SQL Server 2017+.
- SSH Server: leave this disabled.
- Remote Host:Port: enter tds.cdata.com in the first field
and 14333 in the second field.
- Database: enter the Connection Name of the CData
Connect AI data source you want to connect to
(for example, QuickBooksOnline1).
- Username: 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
Leave the rest of the connection settings at their default values unless
you need to modify them.
👁 Configuring connection settings
- At the bottom of the page, click Test These Settings to ensure
that you can connect to CData Connect AI.
- Click Add Connection to create the connection and return to the
Connections page.
👁 New connection added.
Your connection is now available for use in Looker. To connect to
additional data sources from your CData Connect AI account, repeat
the setup steps above, changing the value for Database for each data
source.
Creating A Looker Visualization From The SQL Runner and Explore Features
To create a visualization in Looker using the SQL Runner, follow these steps:
- In the Looker interface, select Develop -> SQL Runner from the left navigation pane.
👁 Select SQL Runner.
- On the SQL Runner interface, select the connection you made in the previous steps.
👁 Entering name for new dashboard.
- Now, click the gear symbol next to a table and then select Explore Table.
👁 Entering name for new dashboard.
- Next, on the left menu, select fields from the table and click Run. You can now expand the Visualization accordion, and see a bar chart, by default.
👁 Entering name for new dashboard.
We have now created a visualization of QuickBooks Online data in Looker using CData Connect AI!
Get CData 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!
