Prepare, Blend, and Analyze OData Services in Alteryx Designer (Connect Cloud)


Build workflows to access live OData services for self-service data analytics.

Alteryx is a software platform that allows people to work with data more easily. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, Alteryx provides instant access to OData services from your data automation processes. This article demonstrates how to connect to OData using Connect Cloud and work with OData services in Alteryx.

CData Connect Cloud offers a dedicated SQL Server interface for OData, facilitating data querying without the need for data replication to a native database. With built-in optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect Cloud efficiently directs all supported SQL operations, including filters and JOINs, straight to OData. This harnesses server-side processing to rapidly retrieve the desired OData services.

About OData Data Integration

CData simplifies access and integration of live OData services data. Our customers leverage CData connectivity to:

  • Access OData versions 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0, working with legacy services and the latest features and capabilities.
  • Leverage advanced query options, including $filter, $select, and $expand, enhancing data retrieval from 3rd party tools.
  • Use Server-side execution of aggregation and grouping to minimize data transfer and boost performance.
  • Authenticate securely using a variety of schemes, including Azure AD, digest, negotiate, NTLM, OAuth, and more means secure authentication with every connection.
  • Use SQL stored procedures to manage OData service entities - listing, creating, and removing associations between entities.

Customers use CData's solutions to regularly integrate their OData services with preferred tools, such as Power BI, MicroStrategy, or Tableau, and to replicate data from OData services to their databases or data warehouses.


Getting Started


Configure OData Connectivity for Alteryx

Connectivity to OData from Alteryx is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with OData services from Alteryx, we start by creating and configuring a OData connection.

  1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
  2. Select "OData" from the Add Connection panel
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to OData.

    The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid OData user credentials. In addition, specify a URL to a valid OData server organization root or OData services file.

  4. Click Create & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add OData Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect Cloud 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 Cloud. 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 Cloud 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.
  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 OData services from Alteryx.

Connect to OData from Alteryx

To establish a connection from Alteryx Desktop to the CData Connect Cloud Virtual SQL Server, follow these steps:

  1. Set up an account in Alteryx.
  2. Drag and drop a new Input Data tool onto the workflow.
  3. While the Input Data tool is selected, click Set Up a Connection in the navigation panel. A Data connections dialog appears.
  4. Click Data sources. Select Microsoft SQL Server > **Quick connect.
  5. In the Connection Manager dialog, click New.
  6. In the New Data Source dialog, enter the following information:
    • Data Source Name: Microsoft SQL Server ODBC DSN-less.
    • Driver: select ODBC Driver 18 for SQL Server from the drop-down list.
    • Server: tds.cdata.com,14333
    • Database: enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect Cloud data source you want to connect to (for example, OData1).
  7. Click Save. Then click Connect Credential.
  8. In Connections, enter the following:
    • Authentication Method: select Username and password.
    • Credential: select Create New Credential.
    • Credential Name: enter a name to identify the credential.
    • Username: enter your CData Connect Cloud username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect Cloud interface. For example, [email protected].
    • Password: enter the PAT you generated on the Settings page.
  9. Click Test Connection. If successful, click Create and link.
  10. Connect with your credentials.
  11. In the wizard that opens, drag and drop the table to be queried in the Query Builder box. Select the fields by checking the boxes that you want to include in your query. Where possible, the complex queries generated by the filters and aggregations will be pushed down to your data source, while any unsupported operations (which can include SQL functions and JOIN operations) will be managed client-side by the CData SQL engine embedded in the connector.
  12. To further customize the dataset, you can open the SQL Editor and modify the query manually, adding clauses, aggregations, and other operations to ensure that you are retrieving exactly the data desired.

  13. With the query defined, you are ready to work with your data in Alteryx Designer.

Get CData Connect Cloud

To get live data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your SQL Server database, try CData Connect Cloud today!

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Learn more about CData Connect Cloud or sign up for free trial access:

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