Configuring a Connection

After Installing the Connector you can connect and create a Data Source for data in REST.

Setting Up a Data Source

Complete the following steps to connect to the data:

Under Connect | To a Server, click More....
Select the data source called REST by CData.
Enter the information required for the connection.
Click Sign In.
If necessary, select a Database and Schema to discover what tables and views are available.

Using the Connection Builder

The connector makes the most common connection properties available directly in Tableau. However, it can be difficult to use if you need to use more advanced settings or need to troubleshoot connection issues. The connector includes a separate connection builder that allows you to create and test connections outside of Tableau.

There are two ways to access the connection builder:

On Windows, use a shortcut called Connection Builder in the Start menu, under the CData Tableau Connector for REST folder.
You can also start the connection builder by going to the driver install directory and running the .jar file in the lib directory.

In the connection builder, you can set values for connection properties and click Test Connection to validate that they work. You can also use the Copy to Clipboard button to save the connection string. This connection string can be given to the Connection String option included in the connector connection window in Tableau.

Modeling XML/JSON/CSV Data

The DataModel property controls how your data is represented into tables.

Document (default): Model a top-level, document view of your REST data. The connector returns nested object arrays as aggregated XML/JSON/CSV objects.
FlattenedDocuments: Implicitly join nested array objects and parent objects into a single table.
Relational: View nested object arrays as individual, related tables containing a primary key and a foreign key that links to the parent document.

Set Format to XML, JSON, or CSV in accordance with the data structuring standard used by the REST source you want to connect to. and set DataModel to more closely match the data representation to the structure of your data.

Next Steps

See Modeling REST Data for information on customizing schema discovery and executing SQL to REST.
See Fine-Tuning Data Access for more advanced connection settings: fine-tune the default data modeling settings, connect through a firewall, or troubleshoot connections.

Next Step