Integrating GigaSpaces with Tableau Desktop

Prerequisites

Your host machine must have the following installed:

  • Java 8 or higher

  • Tableau version 2019.1 or higher

  • (MacOS only) Maven Artifacts

Setting Up the GigaSpaces JDBC Connector

Windows Environment

The GigaSpaces-Tableau integration package provides an automated script that creates the JDBC connector for Tableau Desktop, so that Tableau Desktop can query the GigaSpaces data grid directly using the GigaSpaces JDBC driver. You can customize some default values for the setup process if necessary, as well as create standalone packages for other Tableau users so they can run analytics on data from GigaSpaces .

The integration package is available in the <product>/tools/tableau folder of the GigaSpaces software package. It contains the following files:

  • gs-tableau.bat - runs the setup process for the GigaSpaces-GigaSpaces JDBC connector.
  • gs-tableau-env - environment variables that can be used to customize certain default values for the setup process.
  • gs-tableau-package - script that creates a standalone connector package.

Adding the GigaSpaces JDBC Driver to Tableau

The GigaSpaces-GigaSpaces connector is based on the Tableau Connector SDK and JDBC integration. The setup process includes providing proprietary requirements about various file locations and execution arguments. GigaSpaces provides a script that automates the setup process and starts Tableau Desktop with the GigaSpaces-GigaSpaces connector enabled.

To setup the GigaSpaces-Tableau integration, run the <product>/tools/tableau/gs-tableau.bat script.

The first time this script runs it requires elevated permissions, because it automatically packages and copies the GigaSpaces JDBC driver to Tableau's installation files, which generally reside in the Program Files folder.

Customizing the Setup Process

If necessary, you can customize some of the default setup process values, such as the location of the Tableau installation folder or the JDBC driver heap size. To do this, open the product>/tools/tableau/gs-tableau.env script and edit the required environment variables.

Creating a Standalone Connector Package

If your organization includes Tableau Desktop users who aren't developers (for example, data scientists that don't need GigaSpaces installed locally) you can provide a standalone connector package so that these users can integrate the GigaSpaces-GigaSpaces connector with their Tableau Desktop installation and perform the necessary analytics on the GigaSpaces data.

To create the connector package, run the gs-tableau-package script from the <product>tools\tableau folder. This package can then be distributed and installed on any machine to enable accessing GigaSpaces data using Tableau Desktop.

MacOS Environment

In order to integrate Tableau Desktop with GigaSpaces in a MacOS environment, you have to create the GigaSpaces JDBC driver, copy it to the Drivers folder in the Tableau Desktop program files, and then point to the GigaSpaces JDBC connector in Tableau Dektop. This process requires that you have Maven Artifacts already installed on the host machine where you will create the GigaSpaces-Tableau integration.

Adding the GigaSpaces JDBC Driver to Tableau

To add the GigaSpaces JDBC driver to Tableau:

  1. If the JDBC driver was not yet created, run the following command to create the insightedge-jdbc-client.jar file.

    <product>/tools/jdbc/build-jdbc-client.sh
  2. Run the following command to copy the JDBC driver to the Tableau Drivers folder.

    cp <product>/tools/jdbc/insightedge-jdbc-client.jar<TABLEAU_HOME>/Drivers
  3. Run the Tableau Desktop application with a pointer (the -DConnectPluginsPath system property) to the GigaSpaces JDBC driver in the Tableau program files, as shown in this sample command:

    "/Applications/Tableau Desktop 2019.2.app/Contents/MacOS/Tableau" -DConnectPluginsPath=$$GS_HOME/tools/tableau

Connecting to the Space

To configure the data source after Tableau Desktop is started:

  1. Click Connect in the Tableau desktop, and select Gigaspaces InsightEdge as the data source.

    If Gigaspaces InsightEdge does not appear in the Connect menu on first access ,click More and select Gigaspaces InsightEdge from the alphabetic list.

  2. In the Gigaspaces InsightEdge window, configure the options as follows:
    1. Type the Server host name or IP address. Include the port number if the Space is not using the default port.
    2. (Optional) If your GigaSpaces system includes AnalyticsXtreme, you can type True for Enable AnalyticsXtreme.
    3. Type the Space name.
    4. (Optional) Add Advanced Parameters for the JDBC connection as key-value pairs.
    5. If your system is configured with a secure Space, type the Username and Password.

      For more information about secure Spaces, see the Security section of the Administration guide.

  3. Click Sign In to connect to the GigaSpaces data grid.

  4. Verify that Tableau Desktop can see the tables in your Space.

    If your data source uses POJOs, they must be configured for java.sql.Date rather than java.util.Date.

Querying the Space using Tableau

After the setup process is complete and the connection has been configured, you can execute queries against the GigaSpaces data grid.

Additional Resources

Predictive Stock Pricing Demo