Tableau SharePoint Online Connector

In this article you will learn how to integrate SharePoint Online data to Tableau without coding in just a few clicks (live / bi-directional connection to SharePoint Online). SharePoint Connector can be used to integrate SharePoint and your defined data source, e.g. Microsoft SQL, Oracle, Excel, Power BI, etc. Get, write, delete SharePoint data in a few clicks!.

Using SharePoint Online Connector you will be able to connect, read, and write data from within Tableau. Follow the steps below to see how we would accomplish that.

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Create Data Source in ZappySys Data Gateway based on ZappySys API Driver

  1. Download and install ZappySys ODBC PowerPack.

  2. Search for gateway in start menu and Open ZappySys Data Gateway:
    Open ZappySys Data Gateway

  3. Go to Users Tab to add our first Gateway user. Click Add; we will give it a name tdsuser and enter password you like to give. Check Admin option and click OK to save. We will use these details later when we create linked server:
    ZappySys Data Gateway - Add User

  4. Now we are ready to add a data source. Click Add, give data source a name (Copy this name somewhere, we will need it later) and then select Native - ZappySys API Driver. Finally, click OK.

    SharePointOnlineDSN

    ZappySys Data Gateway - Add Data Source

  5. When the Configuration window appears give your data source a name if you haven't done that already, then select "SharePoint Online" from the list of Popular Connectors. If "SharePoint Online" 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:

    SharePointOnlineDSN
    SharePoint Online
    ODBC DSN Template Selection

  6. 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.

    OAuth App must be created in Microsoft Azure AD. These settings typically found here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/auth-register-app-v2. [Read more..]

    Steps to get SharePoint Online Credentials

    Firstly, login into Azure Portal and there create an OAuth application:

    1. Go to Azure Portal and login there.
    2. Then go to Azure Active Directory.
    3. On the left side click menu item App registrations
    4. Then proceed with clicking New registration.
    5. Enter a name for your application.
    6. Select Accounts in this organizational directory only as supported account type to access data in your company.
    7. In Redirect URI section leave option selected at Web.
    8. In nearby textbox enter https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/nativeclient as Redirect URI or any other valid redirect URL, e.g. https://zappysys.com/oauth
    9. Use this Redirect URI in Redirect URL grid row.
    10. Copy Application (client) ID and paste it into API Connection Manager configuration grid in Client ID row.
    11. Then click on Endpoints link and copy first URL to Authorization URL and second one to Token URL in configuration grid. Usually they look similar to these:
      • https://login.microsoftonline.com/daed1250-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-ef0a982d3d1e/oauth2/v2.0/authorize
      • https://login.microsoftonline.com/daed1250-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-ef0a982d3d1e/oauth2/v2.0/token
      • https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/v2.0/authorize
      • https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/v2.0/token
    12. Close "Endpoints" and create a Client Secret by clicking Certificates & secrets.
    13. Proceed by clicking New client secret and setting expiration period. Copy the client secret and paste it into configuration grid in Client Secret row.
    14. Use these scopes in Scopes field: offline_access Files.Read Files.Read.All Files.ReadWrite Files.ReadWrite.All openid profile Sites.Read.All Sites.ReadWrite.All User.Read email
    15. Click Generate Token to generate tokens.
    16. That's it!
    For more information you can read this link https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/auth-register-app-v2 Also https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/auth-register-app-v2

    Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:

    SharePointOnlineDSN
    SharePoint Online
    User Credentials [OAuth]
    https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0
    Required Parameters
    Authorization URL Fill in the parameter...
    Token URL Fill in the parameter...
    Client ID Fill in the parameter...
    Scope Fill in the parameter...
    SiteId (select after pressing 'Generate Token') Fill in the parameter...
    Optional Parameters
    Client Secret Fill in the parameter...
    ReturnUrl Fill in the parameter...
    Login Prompt Option Fill in the parameter...
    RetryMode Fill in the parameter...
    RetryStatusCodeList Fill in the parameter...
    RetryCountMax Fill in the parameter...
    RetryMultiplyWaitTime Fill in the parameter...
    ODBC DSN Oauth Connection Configuration

    OAuth App must be created in Microsoft Azure AD. These settings typically found here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/auth-v2-service [Read more..]

    Steps to get SharePoint Online Credentials

    Firstly, login into Azure Portal and there create an OAuth application:

    Step-1: Create OAuth App

    1. Go to Azure Portal and login there.
    2. Then go to Azure Active Directory.
    3. On the left side click menu item App registrations
    4. Then proceed with clicking New registration.
    5. Enter a name for your application.
    6. Select one of Accounts in this organizational directory only as supported account type to access data in your company.
    7. In Redirect URI section leave option selected at Web.
    8. Copy Application (client) ID and paste it into API Connection Manager configuration grid in Client ID row.
    9. Then click on Endpoints link and copy second, Token, URL to Token URL field in configuration grid. Usually they look similar to these:
      https://login.microsoftonline.com/daed1250-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-ef0a982d3d1e/oauth2/v2.0/token
      https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/v2.0/token
      
    10. Close "Endpoints" and create a Client Secret by clicking Certificates & secrets.
    11. Proceed by clicking New client secret and setting expiration period. Copy the client secret and paste it into configuration grid in Client Secret row.
    12. Go to API Permissions section and add Microsoft Graph permissions for SharePoint and Drive, e.g. Sites.Selected, Sites.Read.All, Sites.ReadWrite.All, Files.Read.All, Files.ReadWrite.All.
    13. Finally, Grant admin consent for your domain for your permissions.

    Step-2: Register OAuth App in SharePoint Admin Portal

    1. After we create OAuth App we need to add grant SharePoint access to that App using Admin Portal. Make sure you have admin permission to acces Portal. For detailed steps you may refer to this link. Here are basic steps you can follow.
    2. Log in to SharePoint Admin Portal and access below URL
      (Replace YOURCOMPANY)
      https://YOURCOMPANY-admin.sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/appprincipals.aspx?Scope=Web
    3. Enter App Id and other information
    4. Enter XML snippet which describes which permission you want to grant. Here is an example permission (App with FullControl / Read / Write)
      <AppPermissionRequests AllowAppOnlyPolicy="true">
        <AppPermissionRequest Scope="http://sharepoint/content/tenant" Right="FullControl" />
      </AppPermissionRequests>
        
    5. Click Add to grant the permission. That's it!
    NOTE: After adding App in SharePoint if you ever remove the permission then you can visit the following URL and delete the App.
    https://YOURCOMPANY-admin.sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/appprincipals.aspx?Scope=Web

    Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:

    SharePointOnlineDSN
    SharePoint Online
    Application Credentials [OAuth]
    https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0
    Required Parameters
    Token URL Fill in the parameter...
    Client ID Fill in the parameter...
    Client Secret Fill in the parameter...
    SiteId Fill in the parameter...
    Optional Parameters
    Scope Fill in the parameter...
    RetryMode Fill in the parameter...
    RetryStatusCodeList Fill in the parameter...
    RetryCountMax Fill in the parameter...
    RetryMultiplyWaitTime Fill in the parameter...
    ODBC DSN Oauth Connection Configuration

  7. Once the data source has been configured, you can preview data. Select the Preview tab and use settings similar to the following to preview data:
    ODBC ZappySys Data Source Preview

  8. Click OK to finish creating the data source.

Read data in SQL Server from the ZappySys Data Gateway data source

  1. To read the data in SQL Server the first thing you have to do is create a Linked Server. Go to SQL Server Management Studio and configure it in a similar way: SSMS SQL Server Configure Linked Server

  2. Then click on Security option and configure username we created in ZappySys Data Gateway in one of the previous steps: SSMS SQL Server Configure Linked Server User Name

  3. Finally, open a new query and execute a query we saved in one of the previous steps:

    SELECT * FROM OPENQUERY([MY_LINKED_SERVER_NAME], 'SELECT * FROM Products');

    SSMS SQL Server Query Data Results
  4. Finally, use this or similar query in a view or stored procedure, which you will be able to use in Tableau. We will create a view to return invoices:

    CREATE VIEW vwApiInvoices AS
     SELECT * FROM OPENQUERY([MY_LINKED_SERVER_NAME], 'SELECT * FROM Invoices')

Read data in Tableau from SQL Server

Actually, we will be getting data from SQL Server which in turn will be getting data from ZappySys Data Gateway data source. Let's begin and see how to accomplish that:

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

Passing Parameters to REST API calls in Tableau (Dynamic SQL)

Now let's look at scenario where you have to pass parameters to build Dynamic Dashboard. You can try to insert Parameters in your Direct SQL when you build Dynamic SQL but we found some issues with that so we are going to suggest Stored Procedure approach. For more information on Known issue on Dynamic Metadata Check this post.
  1. First lets create a stored procedure in SQL Server for Parameter Example. Notice how we added WITH RESULT SETS in the code to describe metadata.
    --DROP PROC dbo.usp_GetInvoicesByCountry
    --GO
    /*
    Purpose: Parameterize REST API call via SQL. Call ZappySys Drivers inside SQL Server.
    */
    CREATE PROC dbo.usp_GetInvoicesByCountry
    	@country varchar(100) 
    AS 
    
    DECLARE @sql varchar(max)
    --//Escape single ticks carefully
    SET @sql =  'SELECT OrderID,CustomerID,Country,Quantity FROM $
    WITH (Src=''https://services.odata.org/V3/Northwind/Northwind.svc/Invoices?$format=json@filter=Country eq '+ @country +'''
    	 ,Filter=''$.value[*]''
    	 ,DataFormat=''OData''
    )'
    
    DECLARE @sqlFull varchar(max)
    SET @sqlFull='SELECT * FROM OPENQUERY( LS , ''' + REPLACE( @sql, '''', '''''' ) + ''' )'
    PRINT @sqlFull --//For DEBUG purpose
    
    EXECUTE (@sqlFull) 
    WITH RESULT SETS ( 
     (OrderID int,CustomerID varchar(100),Country varchar(100),Quantity int) --//describe first result. If you don't do this then wont work in Tableau 
    )
    GO
    -- Example call
    EXEC dbo.usp_GetInvoicesByCountry @country='Germany'
  2. Once you create a stored procedure go to Tableau datasource and select Database which contains the stored procedure we just created.
  3. Now find your stored proc and drag it on the datasource pane. You will see parameters UI as below. You can create new parameter - Select New Parameter under Value Column. Parameterize Tableau REST API datasource (Stored Procedure Parameters)
  4. Thats it now you can reuse your parameterized datasource anywhere in Dashboard.
  5. If you have need to select Parameters from predefined values rather than free text then edit your parameter and select List option. Define values you like to select from as below. Allow Tableau Parameter selection from multiple values
  6. When you create Tableau Dashboard you will see Parameter dropdown (If you selected List) elase you may see Textbox to enter custom value. Tableau Dashboard Example - REST API Source with Parameterized Datasource

Firewall settings

So far we have assumed that Gateway is running on the same machine as SQL Server. However there will be a case when ZappySys ODBC PowerPack is installed on a different machine than SQL Server. In such case you may have to perform additional Firewall configurations. On most computers firewall settings wont allow outside traffic to ZappySys Data Gateway. In such case perform following steps to allow other machines to connect to Gateway.

Method-1 (Preferred)

If you are using newer version of ZappySys Data Gateway then adding firewall rule is just a single click.

  1. Search for gateway in start menu and open ZappySys Data Gateway.
  2. Go to Firewall Tab and click Add Firewall Rule button like below. This will create Firewall rule to all Inbound Traffic on Port 5000 (Unless you changed it). Allow Inbound Traffic - Add Firewall Rule for ZappySys Data Gateway

Method-2 Here is another way to add / edit Inbound Traffic rule in windows firewall. Use below method if you choose to customize your rule (for advanced users).
  1. Search for Windows Firewall Advanced Security in start menu.
  2. Under Inbound Rules > Right click and click [New Rule] >> Click Next
  3. Select Port on Rule Type >> Click Next
  4. Click on TCP and enter port number under specified local port as 5000 (use different one if you changed Default port) >> Click Next
  5. Select Profile (i.e. Private, Public) >> Click Next
  6. Enter Rule name [i.e. ZappySys Data Gateway – Allow Inbound ] >> Click Next
  7. Click OK to save the rule
SQL Server Firewall Allow Inbound Data Gateway

Create Custom Store Procedure in ZappySys Driver

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 Store Procedure in ZappySys Driver. You can insert Placeholders anywhere inside Procedure Body. Read more about placeholders here

  1. Go to Custom Objects Tab and Click on Add button and Select Add Procedure:
    ZappySys Driver - Add Store Procedure

  2. Enter the desired Procedure name and click on OK:
    ZappySys Driver - Add Store Procedure Name

  3. Select the created Store Procedure and write the your desired store procedure and Save it and it will create the custom store 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>';
    

    ZappySys Driver - Create Custom Store Procedure

  4. That's it now go to Preview Tab and Execute your Store 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';

    ZappySys Driver - Execute Custom Store Procedure

Create Custom Virtual Table in ZappySys Driver

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.

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.

  1. Go to Custom Objects Tab and Click on Add button and Select Add Table:
    ZappySys Driver - Add Table

  2. Enter the desired Table name and click on OK:
    ZappySys Driver - Add Table Name

  3. And it will open the New Query Window Click on Cancel to close that window and go to Custom Objects Tab.

  4. 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'

    ZappySys Driver - Create Custom Table

  5. 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"

    ZappySys Driver - Execute Custom Virtual Table Query

Conclusion

In this article we discussed how to connect to SharePoint Online in Tableau and integrate data without any coding. Click here to Download SharePoint Online Connector for Tableau and try yourself see how easy it is. If you still have any question(s) then ask here or simply click on live chat icon below and ask our expert (see bottom-right corner of this page).

Download SharePoint Online Connector for Tableau Documentation 

Actions supported by SharePoint Online Connector

SharePoint Online Connector support following actions for REST API integration. If some actions are not listed below then you can easily edit Connector file and enhance out of the box functionality.
 Read Main Site
 List Sites
 List Drives
Parameter Description
SiteId Specify a site
 Read Drive
Parameter Description
SiteId Specify a site
DriveId Specify a drive
 List Folders
Parameter Description
SiteId Specify a site
DriveId Specify a drive
 List Files
Parameter Description
SiteId Specify a site
DriveId Specify a drive
 List Excel Files
Parameter Description
SiteId Specify a site
DriveId Specify a drive
 List SharePoint Lists
Parameter Description
SiteId Specify a site
 List SharePoint System Lists
Parameter Description
SiteId Specify a site
 Read List Fields
Parameter Description
SiteId Specify a site
ListId Specify a list id to search items for
Expand
 Read List
Parameter Description
SiteId Specify a site
ListId Specify a list id to search items for
 Read List Items
Parameter Description
SiteId Specify a site
ListId Specify a list id to search items for
 Read List Items (Dynamic Columns)
Use this endpoint if you face issue with NULl values in some columns. This endpoint scans metadata from few sample rows and decides datatypes. Use this if other endpoing showing null values for Complex datatypes (e.g. Lookup, Location, Person)
Parameter Description
SiteId Specify a site
ListId Specify a list id to search items for
 Read List Item (By ID)
Parameter Description
SiteId Specify a site
ListId Specify a list id to search items for
ListItemId Specify a list item id (Record ID)
 Create List Item
Parameter Description
SiteId Specify a site
ListId Specify a list id to search items for
 Update List Item
Parameter Description
SiteId Specify a site
ListId Specify a list id to search items for
ListItemId Specify a list item id
 Delete List Item
Parameter Description
SiteId Specify a site
ListId Specify a list id to search items for
ListItemId Specify a list item id
 List Excel Worksheets
Parameter Description
SiteId Specify a site
DriveId Specify a drive Id to search items in
FileId Specify a drive Id to search items in
 Read Excel Worksheet
Parameter Description
SiteId Specify a site
DriveId Specify a drive Id
FileId Specify a file id
SheetId Specify a sheet name
Range
 Download File as a column field
Parameter Description
SiteId Specify a site
DriveId Specify a drive Id
FileId Specify a file id
 Download File to disk
Parameter Description
SiteId Specify a site
DriveId Specify a drive Id
FileId Specify a file id
 Delete File from Sharepoint Site
Parameter Description
SiteId Specify a site
DriveId Specify a drive Id
FileId Specify a file id
 Upload File
Parameter Description
SiteId Specify a site
DriveId Specify a drive Id
DiskFilePath Specify a disk file path
SharePointFilePath Specify target file path
 Generic Request
This is generic endpoint. Use this endpoint when some actions are not implemented by connector. Just enter partial URL (Required), Body, Method, Header etc. Most parameters are optional except URL.
Parameter Description
Url API URL goes here. You can enter full URL or Partial URL relative to Base URL. If it is full URL then domain name must be part of ServiceURL or part of TrustedDomains
Body Request Body content goes here
IsMultiPart Check this option if you want to upload file(s) (i.e. POST RAW file data) or send data using Multi-Part encoding method (i.e. Content-Type: multipart/form-data). Multi-Part request allows you to mix key/value and upload files in same request. On the other hand raw upload allows only single file upload (without any key/value) ==== Raw Upload (Content-Type: application/octet-stream) ===== To upload single file in raw mode check this option and specify full file path starting with @ sign in the Body (e.g. @c:\data\myfile.zip ) ==== Form-Data / Multipart Upload (Content-Type: multipart/form-data) ===== To treat your Request data as multi part fields you must specify key/value pairs separated by new lines into RequestData field (i.e. Body). Each key value pair is entered on new-line and key/value are separated using equal sign (=). Preceding and trailing spaces are ignored also blank lines are ignored. If field value has some any special character(s) then use escape sequence (e.g. For NewLine: \r\n, For Tab: \t, For at (@): \@). When value of any field starts with at sign (@) its automatically treated as File you want to upload. By default file content type is determined based on extension however you can supply content type manually for any field using this way [ YourFileFieldName.Content-Type=some-content-type ]. By default File Upload Field always includes Content-Type in the request (non file fields do not have content-type by default unless you supply manually). For some reason if you dont want to use Content-Type header in your request then supply blank Content-Type to exclude this header altogather [e.g. SomeFieldName.Content-Type= ]. In below example we have supplied Content-Type for file2 and SomeField1, all other fields are using default content-type. See below Example of uploading multiple files along with additional fields. file1=@c:\data\Myfile1.txt file2=@c:\data\Myfile2.json file2.Content-Type=application/json SomeField1=aaaaaaa SomeField1.Content-Type=text/plain SomeField2=12345 SomeFieldWithNewLineAndTab=This is line1\r\nThis is line2\r\nThis is \ttab \ttab \ttab SomeFieldStartingWithAtSign=\@MyTwitterHandle
Filter Enter filter to extract array from response. Example: $.rows[*] --OR-- $.customers[*].orders[*]. Check your response document and find out hierarchy you like to extract
Headers Headers for Request. To enter multiple headers use double pipe or new line after each {header-name}:{value} pair

Other App Integration scenarios for SharePoint Online

Other Connectors for Tableau


Download SharePoint Online Connector for Tableau Documentation 

  • How to connect SharePoint Online in Tableau?

  • How to get SharePoint Online data in Tableau?

  • How to read SharePoint Online data in Tableau?

  • How to load SharePoint Online data in Tableau?

  • How to import SharePoint Online data in Tableau?

  • How to pull SharePoint Online data in Tableau?

  • How to push data to SharePoint Online in Tableau?

  • How to write data to SharePoint Online in Tableau?

  • How to POST data to SharePoint Online in Tableau?

  • Call SharePoint Online API in Tableau

  • Consume SharePoint Online API in Tableau

  • SharePoint Online Tableau Automate

  • SharePoint Online Tableau Integration

  • Integration SharePoint Online in Tableau

  • Consume real-time SharePoint Online data in Tableau

  • Consume realtime SharePoint Online API data in Tableau

  • SharePoint Online ODBC Driver | ODBC Driver for SharePoint Online | ODBC SharePoint Online Driver | SSIS SharePoint Online Source | SSIS SharePoint Online Destination

  • Connect SharePoint Online in Tableau

  • Load SharePoint Online in Tableau

  • Load SharePoint Online data in Tableau

  • Read SharePoint Online data in Tableau

  • SharePoint Online API Call in Tableau