Create Reports from Spark 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 Spark data to create visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article provides step-by-step instructions on establishing a virtual database for Spark and generating reports from Spark data within Looker Studio.

CData Connect AI offers a seamless cloud-to-cloud interface tailored for Spark, making it straightforward to construct reports directly from live Spark 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 Spark. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly provide the requested Spark data.

Configure Spark Connectivity for Looker Studio

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

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

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

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

   Set the Server, Database, User, and Password connection properties to connect to SparkSQL.

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

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

Visualize Live Spark Data from Looker Studio

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Looker Studio to create a new Spark 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. SparkSQL1) and click Next 👁 Selecting a Connection
   
6. Select a Table (e.g. Customers) 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 Spark data in Looker Studio

Live Access to Spark Data from Cloud Applications

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