Build Sage 300 Visualizations in Tableau Cloud

Tableau Cloud is an analytics platform fully hosted in the cloud. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Sage 300 data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to connect to Sage 300 and build visualizations from Sage 300 data in Tableau Cloud.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Sage 300, allowing you to easily build visualizations from live Sage 300 data in Tableau Cloud without installing connectors or publishing worksheets and data sources from Tableau Desktop. As you build visualizations, Tableau Cloud generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Sage 300, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Sage 300 data.

Configure Sage 300 Connectivity for Tableau Cloud

To work with Sage 300 data from Tableau Cloud, we need to connect to Sage 300 from Connect Cloud, provide user access to the connection, and create a Workspace for the Sage 300 data.

Connect to Sage 300 from Connect Cloud

CData Connect Cloud uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

2. Select "Sage 300" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Sage 300.

   Sage 300 requires some initial setup in order to communicate over the Sage 300 Web API.

   • Set up the security groups for the Sage 300 user. Give the Sage 300 user access to the option under Security Groups (per each module required).
   • Edit both web.config files in the /Online/Web and /Online/WebApi folders; change the key AllowWebApiAccessForAdmin to true. Restart the webAPI app-pool for the settings to take.
   • Once the user access is configured, click https://server/Sage300WebApi/ to ensure access to the web API.

   Authenticate to Sage 300 using Basic authentication.

   Connect Using Basic Authentication

   You must provide values for the following properties to successfully authenticate to Sage 300. Note that the provider reuses the session opened by Sage 300 using cookies. This means that your credentials are used only on the first request to open the session. After that, cookies returned from Sage 300 are used for authentication.

   • Url: Set this to the url of the server hosting Sage 300. Construct a URL for the Sage 300 Web API as follows: {protocol}://{host-application-path}/v{version}/{tenant}/ For example, http://localhost/Sage300WebApi/v1.0/-/.
   • User: Set this to the username of your account.
   • Password: Set this to the password of your account.
   
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Sage 300 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.

Configure Sage 300 Endpoints for Tableau Cloud

After connecting to Sage 300, create a workspace for your desired table(s).

1. Navigate to the Workspaces page and click Add to create a new Workspace (or select an existing workspace).
2. Click Add to add new assets to the Workspace.
3. Select the Sage 300 connection (e.g. Sage3001) and click Next.
4. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Confirm.
5. Make note of the OData Service URL for your workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}

With the connection, PAT, and Workspace configured, you are ready to connect to Sage 300 data from Tableau Cloud.

Visualize Live Sage 300 Data in Tableau Cloud

The steps below outline creating a new data source in Tableau Cloud based on the virtual Sage 300 database in Connect Cloud and building a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into Tableau Cloud, select a account, and create a new workbook.
2. In the new workbook, choose the OData Connector from the data wizard and fill in the values for your Connect Cloud instance.
   • Set Server to the OData URL for your Workspace, e.g. https://cloud.cdata.com/api/odata/{workspace_name}
   • Set Authentication to Username and Password
   • Set Username to your Connect Cloud username (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to a PAT for the above user
   
3. Select your newly created database and the table(s) you wish to visualize (defining relationships for JOINad tables as needed).

4. Select Dimensions and Measures and configure your visualization.

Real-Time Access to Sage 300 Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Sage 300 data from your Tableau Cloud workbook. You can create new visualizations, build dashboards, and more, with no need to publish data sources and workbooks from Tableau Desktop. For more information on gaining live access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources from cloud applications like Tableau Cloud, refer to our Connect Cloud page.