How to Connect Tableau & Snowflake for Reporting
Introduction
Progress DataDirect’s Snowflake ODBC and JDBC Drivers offer a high-performing, secure, and reliable connectivity solution, for ODBC and JDBC applications to access Snowflake data. If you want to use our ODBC and JDBC Snowflake Driver with the Tableau Desktop application, Progress DataDirect has you covered. This tutorial will teach you how to configure the DataDirect Snowflake ODBC and JDBC driver within Tableau Desktop to create reports. These steps can also configure any ODBC and JDBC connection with Tableau.
Prerequisites
This tutorial assumes that you have ODBC and JDBC drivers installed, and a data source configured. If you have not yet done these steps, please follow these instructions:
1. Download and install the Progress DataDirect ODBC driver or JDBC driver using the 15-day trial software. In this tutorial, we are connecting to Snowflake Database.
2. DataDirect documentation for assistance with setting up your data source. You will learn how to configure a Snowflake Data source in the following steps for both ODBC and JDBC.
Configure Connection to Snowflake ODBC Driver Using the ODBC Administrator
1. After the DataDirect Snowflake ODBC driver has been installed, open ODBC Administrator to configure the connection and click on Add.
2. Choose the “DataDirect X.X Snowflake” and click on “Finish.”
3. The ODBC Snowflake Wire Protocol Driver Setup window will pop up.
Enter your credentials, click on “Apply” and then click on “Test Connect.”
4. The Snowflake Logon screen will pop up. Provide logon credentials and click on “OK.”
5. A dialog box will confirm that the connection is established.
Connecting Tableau to an ODBC Data Source
1. Start Tableau and connect to the server. Select the “Other Databases (ODBC)” option.
2. In the pop-up window, select the “DSN” radial button and choose the data source previously configured to connect to Snowflake in the dropdown.
3. Click on “Connect” and another Logon Dialog popup screen will appear. Enter the credentials and click “OK”
4. Enter any additional parameters required to connect to your Snowflake Data source, such as a username and password, and select “OK.” The original connection screen will now display the connection attributes.
5. Select “Sign In” and the Tableau configuration screen should now appear.
6. In the database dropdown menu choose the data source.
7. You can use Tableau's schema and table drop-down list to browse and select your data. Or you can execute SQL statements by clicking on the "New Custom SQL" option.
8. A popup dialogue box will appear to edit custom SQL.
For example, you can execute a statement such as "Select * from schema_name.table_name" and then click on the "Sheet 1" option at the bottom of the Tableau screen.
This screen will allow you to select data and create tables or charts, such as the sample below:
Installing the JDBC driver
1. Installing the driver:
If you are on Windows, extract the PROGRESS_DATADIRECT_JDBC_SNOWFLAKE_WIN.zip and run the PROGRESS_DATADIRECT_JDBC_INSTALL.exeto install the JDBC driver.
If you are on Linux, extract the PROGRESS_DATADIRECT_JDBC_SNOWFLAKE_WIN.zip and run the PROGRESS_DATADIRECT_JDBC_INSTALL.jar to start the installation.
2. After you have completed the installation, you can find the Progress DataDirect Snowflake driver .jar file.
On Windows, you will find it at C:\ProgramFiles\Progress\DataDirect\JDBC_60\lib\snowflake.jar
On Linux, you will find it at /home/<username>/Progress/DataDirect/JDBC_60/lib/snowflake.jar
Connecting Tableau to a JDBC Data Source
1. To get started, copy Snowflake.jar from the Progress installation location to Tableau’s driver location.
For Windows: copy snowflake.jar to C:\Program Files\Tableau\Drivers
For Mac: copy snowflake.jar to ~/Library/Tableau/Drivers
2. Open Tableau and create a new data source.
- Select “Other Databases (JDBC).”
- The pop-up window will appear.
- Paste the JDBC connection string into the “URL” textbox. Enter credentials for username and password, and click on “Sign In.”
- For example: jdbc:datadirect:snowflake://AccountName;Warehouse=;Schema=;DatabaseName=;
3. Tableau will then connect to the Snowflake database, and the Configuration Screen will appear.
4. You can use Tableau's schema and table drop-down list to browse and select your data, or you can execute SQL statements by clicking on the "New Custom SQL" option. The image below shows the schemas on the left-hand side.
5. Once Tableau can access your relevant data, you can easily create reports like those shown below:
Conclusion
Get started today with a free 15-day trial of Progress DataDirect Snowflake ODBC drivers and JDBC drivers, and connect Tableau to all your data!
Contact Us for assistance with any questions you may have, and we will be happy to help!