Dropbox Connector for Tableau : Make generic REST API request via SQL

Learn how to make generic REST API request using the Dropbox Connector for Tableau. This connector enables you to read and write Dropbox data effortlessly. Integrate, manage, and automate files and folders — almost no coding required. We'll walk you through the exact setup.

Let's dive in!

Dropbox ODBC Driver Powering this integration

High performance
Bidirectional
Low-code / No-code
Easy to use

Built on the ZappySys API Driver, the Dropbox ODBC Driver is a high-performance, low-code / no-code solution. It enables you to connect to Dropbox data without any coding right in your SQL Server, or any ODBC/JDBC application. Part of the ODBC PowerPack.

Documentation

Create data source using Dropbox ODBC Driver

Download and install ODBC PowerPack (if you haven't already).
Search for odbc and open the ODBC Data Sources (64-bit):
Create a User data source (User DSN) based on the ZappySys API Driver driver:

ZappySys API Driver
- Create and use a User DSN if the client application runs under a User Account. This is the ideal option at design time (e.g., when developing in Visual Studio). Use it for both types of applications (64-bit and 32-bit).
- Create and use a System DSN if the client application runs under a System Account (e.g., as a Windows Service). This is usually the required option in a production environment. If your Windows Service is a 32-bit application, you must use the 32-bit ODBC Data Source Administrator to configure this
When the Configuration window appears give your data source a name if you haven't done that already, then select "Dropbox" from the list of Popular Connectors. If "Dropbox" is not present in the list, then click "Search Online" and download it. Then set the path to the location where you downloaded it. Finally, click Continue >> to proceed with configuring the DSN:

DropboxDSN

Dropbox

Now it's time to configure the Connection Manager. Select Authentication Type, e.g. Token Authentication. Then select API Base URL (in most cases, the default one is the right one). More info is available in the Authentication section.

User Account

Dropbox authentication

To use OAuth authentication, firstly, you need to create OAuth application:

Log into your Dropbox account.
Go to Dropbox My Apps.
Then press Create app button to create a new app:
Once a new page opens, select Scoped access option:
Next, select Full Dropbox to access all files and folders or App folder to access specific folder's files and folders option.
Continue by giving your app a name.
Then check I agree to Dropbox API Terms and Conditions checkbox.
Click Create app button.
Once a new page opens, click Enable additional teams and Enable additional users buttons:
Then copy App key and App secret and copy paste them into your favorite text editor (you will need them later).
Proceed by setting a Redirect URI and clicking Add button.
NOTE: If you don't have a working Redirect URI, you can use https://zappysys.com/oauth (it's safe).
Then click on Permissions tab and select application scopes:
Select all Individual Scopes and Team Scopes if you want to manage team data.
Click Submit button.
Now go to SSIS package or ODBC data source and in User Account authentication set these parameters:
1. For ClientId field use App key value.
2. For ClientSecret field use App secret value.
3. For ReturnUrl field use Redirect URI value.
Done! Now you are ready to use Dropbox Connector!

NOTE: If you are planning to use your current data connection/token for automated processes, we recommend that you use a generic account for token generation when the login box appears (e.g. sales_automation@mycompany.com instead of bob_smith@mycompany.com). When you use a personal account which is tied to a specific employee profile and that employee leaves the company, the token may become invalid and any automated processes using that token will fail. Another potentially unwanted effect of using a personal token is incorrect logging; the API calls (e.g. Read, Edit, Delete, Upload) made with that token will record the specific user as performing the calls instead of an automated process.

API Connection Manager configuration

Just perform these simple steps to finish authentication configuration:

Set Authentication Type to User Account [OAuth]
Optional step. Modify API Base URL if needed (in most cases default will work).
Fill in all the required parameters and set optional parameters if needed.
Press Generate Token button to generate the tokens.
Finally, hit OK button:

DropboxDSN

Dropbox

User Account [OAuth]

https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/

Required Parameters
UseCustomApp	Fill-in the parameter...
ReturnUrl	Fill-in the parameter...
Optional Parameters
ClientId
ClientSecret
Scope
RetryMode	RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
RetryStatusCodeList	429
RetryCountMax	5
RetryMultiplyWaitTime	True

Then go to Preview tab to start building a SQL query.
Once you do that, proceed by opening Query Builder:

ZappySys API Driver - Dropbox

Read and write Dropbox data effortlessly. Integrate, manage, and automate files and folders — almost no coding required.

DropboxDSN
Then simply select the Make Generic REST API Request endpoint (action).
Continue by configuring the Required parameters. You can also set optional parameters too.
Move on by hitting Preview Data button to preview the results.

If you see the results you need, simply copy the generated query:

Make Generic REST API Request

Required Parameters
HTTP - Url or File Path	Select the value from the dropdown
Optional Parameters
HTTP - Request Body
HTTP - Is MultiPart Body (Pass File data/Mixed Key/value)
HTTP - Headers (e.g. hdr1:aaa \|\| hdr2:bbb)	Accept: / \|\| Cache-Control: no-cache
Parser - Filter (e.g. $.rows[*] )
Download - Enable reading binary data	False
Download - File overwrite mode	AlwaysOverwrite
Download - Save file path
Download - Enable raw output mode as single row	False
Download - Raw output data RowTemplate	{Status:'Downloaded'}
Download - Request Timeout (Milliseconds)
Advanced Properties
HTTP - Request Method	GET
HTTP - Request Format (Content-Type)	ApplicationJson
Parser - Response Format (Default=Json)	Default
Parser - Encoding
Parser - CharacterSet
General - Enable Custom Search/Replace
General - SearchFor (e.g. (\d)-(\d)--regex)
General - ReplaceWith (e.g. $1-***)
General - File Compression Type
General - Date Format
General - Enable Big Number Handling	False
General - Wait time (Ms) - Helps to slow down pagination (Use for throttling)	0
JSON/XML - ExcludedProperties (e.g. meta,info)
JSON/XML - Flatten Small Array (Not preferred for more than 10 items)
JSON/XML - Max Array Items To Flatten	10
JSON/XML - Array Transform Type
JSON/XML - Array Transform Column Name Filter
JSON/XML - Array Transform Row Value Filter
JSON/XML - Array Transform Enable Custom Columns
JSON/XML - Enable Pivot Transform
JSON/XML - Array Transform Custom Columns
JSON/XML - Pivot Path Replace With
JSON/XML - Enable Pivot Path Search Replace	False
JSON/XML - Pivot Path Search For
JSON/XML - Include Pivot Path	False
JSON/XML - Throw Error When No Match for Filter	False
JSON/XML - Parent Column Prefix
JSON/XML - Include Parent When Child Null	False
Pagination - Mode
Pagination - Attribute Name (e.g. page)
Pagination - Increment By (e.g. 100)	1
Pagination - Expression for Next URL (e.g. $.nextUrl)
Pagination - Wait time after each request (milliseconds)	0
Pagination - Max Rows Expr
Pagination - Max Pages Expr
Pagination - Max Rows DataPath Expr
Pagination - Max Pages	0
Pagination - End Rules
Pagination - Next URL Suffix
Pagination - Next URL End Indicator
Pagination - Stop Indicator Expr
Pagination - Current Page
Pagination - End Strategy Type	DetectBasedOnRecordCount
Pagination - Stop based on this Response StatusCode
Pagination - When EndStrategy Condition Equals	True
Pagination - Max Response Bytes	0
Pagination - Min Response Bytes	0
Pagination - Error String Match
Pagination - Enable Page Token in Body	False
Pagination - Placeholders (e.g. {page})
Pagination - Has Different NextPage Info	False
Pagination - First Page Body Part
Pagination - Next Page Body Part
Csv - Column Delimiter	,
Csv - Has Header Row	True
Csv - Throw error when column count mismatch	False
Csv - Throw error when no record found	False
Csv - Allow comments (i.e. line starts with # treat as comment and skip line)	False
Csv - Comment Character	#
Csv - Skip rows	0
Csv - Ignore Blank Lines	True
Csv - Skip Empty Records	False
Csv - Skip Header Comment Rows	0
Csv - Trim Headers	False
Csv - Trim Fields	False
Csv - Ignore Quotes	False
Csv - Treat Any Blank Value As Null	False
Xml - ElementsToTreatAsArray

SELECT * FROM __DynamicRequest__

Click OK to use built SQL query and close the Query Builder.
Now hit Preview Data button to preview the data using the generated SQL query. If you are satisfied with the result, use this query in Tableau:
ZappySys API Driver - Dropbox

Read and write Dropbox data effortlessly. Integrate, manage, and automate files and folders — almost no coding required.

DropboxDSN
```
SELECT * FROM __DynamicRequest__
```
You can also access data quickly from the tables dropdown by selecting <Select table>.

A WHERE clause, LIMIT keyword will be performed on the client side, meaning that the whole result set will be retrieved from the Dropbox API first, and only then the filtering will be applied to the data. If possible, it is recommended to use parameters in Query Builder to filter the data on the server side (in Dropbox servers).

Let's not stop here and explore SQL query examples, including how to use them in Stored Procedures and Views (virtual tables) in the next steps.

Dropbox SQL query examples

Use these SQL queries in your Tableau data source:

Get DynamicRequest

SELECT * FROM __DynamicRequest__

generic_request endpoint belongs to __DynamicRequest__ table(s), and can therefore be used via those table(s).

Create SQL view in ODBC data source

ZappySys API Drivers support flexible Query language so you can override Default Properties you configured on Data Source such as URL, Body. This way you don't have to create multiple Data Sources if you like to read data from multiple EndPoints. However not every application support supplying custom SQL to driver so you can only select Table from list returned from driver.

If you're dealing with Microsoft Access and need to import data from an SQL query, it's important to note that Access doesn't allow direct import of SQL queries. Instead, you can create custom objects (Virtual Tables) to handle the import process.

Many applications like MS Access, Informatica Designer wont give you option to specify custom SQL when you import Objects. In such case Virtual Table is very useful. You can create many Virtual Tables on the same Data Source (e.g. If you have 50 URLs with slight variations you can create virtual tables with just URL as Parameter setting.

Go to Custom Objects Tab and Click on Add button and Select Add Table:
Enter the desired Table name and click on OK:
And it will open the New Query Window Click on Cancel to close that window and go to Custom Objects Tab.
Select the created table, Select Text Type AS SQL and write the your desired SQL Query and Save it and it will create the custom table in the ZappySys Driver:
Here is an example SQL query for ZappySys Driver. You can insert Placeholders also. Read more about placeholders here
```
SELECT
  "ShipCountry",
  "OrderID",
  "CustomerID",
  "EmployeeID",
  "OrderDate",
  "RequiredDate",
  "ShippedDate",
  "ShipVia",
  "Freight",
  "ShipName",
  "ShipAddress",
  "ShipCity",
  "ShipRegion",
  "ShipPostalCode"
FROM "Orders"
Where "ShipCountry"='USA'
```
That's it now go to Preview Tab and Execute your custom virtual table query. In this example it will extract the orders for the USA Shipping Country only:
```
SELECT * FROM "vt__usa_orders_only"
```

Make generic REST API request in Tableau via SQL view

Open Tableau Desktop and click File > New.
To create new Connection click More > Microsoft SQL Server > Enter your credentials to connect to SQL Server (in our example before we used john):
Once connection is created for SQL Server we can read Dropbox data 3 different ways:
1. Query View which contains OPENQUERY to Linked Server for Dropbox data
2. Use direct SQL Query using OPENQUERY
3. Use Stored Procedure (Mostly useful to parameterize calls
See below example to pull data from Dropbox in Tableau using SQL View approach:
Once your data sources are created you can click on Sheet1 and drag fields to create visualizations for Tableau Dashboard:

Advanced topics

Creating SQL stored procedures

You can create procedures to encapsulate custom logic and then only pass handful parameters rather than long SQL to execute your API call.

Steps to create Custom Stored Procedure in ZappySys Driver. You can insert Placeholders anywhere inside Procedure Body. Read more about placeholders here

Go to Custom Objects Tab and Click on Add button and Select Add Procedure:
Enter the desired Procedure name and click on OK:
Select the created Stored Procedure and write the your desired stored procedure and Save it and it will create the custom stored procedure in the ZappySys Driver. Here is an example stored procedure for ZappySys Driver. You can insert Placeholders anywhere inside Procedure Body. Read more about placeholders here
```
CREATE PROCEDURE [usp_get_orders]
    @fromdate = '<<yyyy-MM-dd,FUN_TODAY>>'
 AS
    SELECT * FROM Orders where OrderDate >= '<@fromdate>';
```
That's it now go to Preview Tab and Execute your Stored Procedure using Exec Command. In this example it will extract the orders from the date 1996-01-01:
```
Exec usp_get_orders '1996-01-01';
```

Conclusion

And there you have it — a complete guide on how to make generic REST API request in Tableau without writing complex code. All of this was powered by Dropbox ODBC Driver, which handled the REST API pagination and authentication for us automatically.

Download the trial now or ping us via chat if you have any questions or are looking for a specific feature (you can also reach out to us by submitting a ticket):

Download Chat

More actions supported by Dropbox Connector

Got another use case in mind? We've documented the exact setups for a variety of essential Dropbox operations directly in Tableau, so you can skip the trial and error. Find your next step-by-step guide below: