Tableau Connector for WooCommerce

Build 23.0.8839

Configuring a Connection

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

Setting Up a Data Source

Complete the following steps to connect to the data:

  1. Under Connect | To a Server, click More....
  2. Select the data source called WooCommerce by CData.
  3. Enter the information required for the connection.
  4. Click Sign In.
  5. 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 WooCommerce 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.

Connecting to WooCommerce

In order to connect to WooCommerce, you also must specify the service instance's URL:

  • Url: The base URL of the WooCommerce instance to connect to. For example, http://localhost/woocommerce/.

Authenticating to WooCommerce

WooCommerce supports Basic authentication, "one-legged" OAuth1.0 authentication, and standard OAuth2.0 authentication.

Basic Authentication

Certain plugins or servers can interfere with the Authorization header if not configured properly. In those cases, users can employ Basic authentication to validate their credentials. In Basic authentication, the user provides the WooCommerce consumer_key as the user, and the WooCommerce consumer_secret as the password. These credentials are then sent as query parameters with each request.

To authenticate using Basic authentication, specify these properties:

  • AuthScheme: Basic.
  • ConsumerKey: The WooCommerce consumer key(User).
  • ConsumerSecret: The WooCommerce consumer secret(Password).

"One-Legged" Authentication

One-legged (OAuth 1.0) authentication uses credentials generated from the WooCommerce setttings page. These are not the same as the credentials generated using the WooCommerce OAuth 2.0 plugin.

To authenticate using one-legged authentication, specify these properties:

  • AuthScheme: OAuthOneLegged.
  • ConsumerKey
  • ConsumerSecret

OAuth 2.0 Authentication

To enable OAuth 2.0 authentication from all OAuth flows, you must install the WooCommerce OAuth2 Plugin, create a custom OAuth application, and set AuthScheme to OAuth.

The following subsections describe how to authenticate to WooCommerce from three common authentication flows. For information about how to create a custom OAuth application, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application. For a complete list of connection string properties available in WooCommerce, see Connection.

Desktop Applications

To authenticate with the credentials for a custom OAuth application, you must get and refresh the OAuth access token. After you do that, you are ready to connect.

Get and refresh the OAuth access token:

  • InitiateOAuth: GETANDREFRESH. Used to automatically get and refresh the OAuthAccessToken.
  • OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your application.
  • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret that was assigned when you registered your application.
  • CallbackURL: The redirect URI that was defined when you registered your application.

When you connect, the connector opens WooCommerce's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application.

After you grant permissions to the application, the connector then completes the OAuth process:

  1. The connector obtains an access token from WooCommerce and uses it to request data.
  2. The OAuth values are saved in the path specified in OAuthSettingsLocation. These values persist across connections.

When the access token expires, the connector refreshes it automatically.

Automatic refresh of the OAuth access token:

To have the connector automatically refresh the OAuth access token:

  1. Before connecting to data for the first time, set these connection properties:
    • InitiateOAuth: REFRESH.
    • OAuthClientId: The client Id in your application settings.
    • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret in your application settings.
    • OAuthAccessToken: The access token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
    • OAuthSettingsLocation: The path where you want the connector to save the OAuth values, which persist across connections.
  2. On subsequent data connections, set:
    • InitiateOAuth
    • OAuthSettingsLocation

Manual refresh of the OAuth access token:

The only value needed to manually refresh the OAuth access token is the OAuth refresh token.

  1. To manually refresh the OAuthAccessToken after the ExpiresIn period (returned by GetOAuthAccessToken) has elapsed, call the RefreshOAuthAccessToken stored procedure.
  2. Set these connection properties:

    • OAuthClientId: The Client Id in your application settings.
    • OAuthClientSecret: The Client Secret in your application settings.

  3. Call RefreshOAuthAccessToken with OAuthRefreshToken set to the OAuth refresh token returned by GetOAuthAccessToken.
  4. After the new tokens have been retrieved, set the OAuthAccessToken property to the value returned by RefreshOAuthAccessToken. This opens a new connection.

Store the OAuth refresh token so that you can use it to manually refresh the OAuth access token after it has expired.

Next Step

See Using the Connector to create data visualizations.

Copyright (c) 2024 CData Software, Inc. - All rights reserved.
Build 23.0.8839