GroveStreams OData V4 (Beta)
Reporting Connector

Overview

OData (Open Data Protocol) is a standardized method for accessing and querying data over the web, simplifying the integration of GroveStreams' robust data stream analytics with tools such as MS Power BI Report Builder, SAP, IBM Cognos, Tableau, and many others.

Getting Started

OData enables you to share a list of GroveStreams query results with external tools by creating an OData URL for a specific query folder within your organization. Here's how:

Step 1: Create a set of query results for reporting

1. Sign-in to GroveStreams, enter the studio, choose the Tools tab on the left side of the studio.
2. Create a Query folder and create one or more Queries in the folder. Populate each query's cache. Ensure that each query result column has a name. Create a query schedule, if required, for each query. Each query result in the folder will be exposed to the reporting tool. Sub-folders are not exposed.
!!IMPORTANT!! Query names cannot have spaces or special characters within them. Some reporting tools will treat the query name as a database table name and expect the name to follow that convention.

Step 2: Open API Keys

1. Select Admin - Security - HTTP API Keys

Step 3: Create an API Key

1. Click the Create Key button

Step 4: Setup the new API Key

1. Enter an API Key Name
2. Click the Add Instance button and select OData URL and select the query folder from above. All query results in this folder will become available to reporting tools, such as Tableau. The API Key will only work for the selected folder when Add Instance is used (more secure). Use Add Type to create an API Key that will work for any folder (less secure).
3. Click the Save button

Step 5: Copy the api_key secret key to the clipboard

1. Select the new API Key from the list of keys
2. Click View Secret Key
3. Select the secret key and copy it to the clipboard (Ctrl-c)

Step 6: Open the OData URL window

1. Select Tools
2. Select the query folder to expose to reporting tools such as Tableau
3. Right-click and select Create OData URL

Step 7: Create the OData URL

1. Select API Key. Some reporting tools support OAuth2, but using an API key allows OData report users to access data without a GroveStreams account. In contrast, the OAuth2 option requires reporting users to have a GroveStreams account. When OAuth2 is used, the reporting tool will prompt for the user’s GroveStreams email and password. The user must have Read and Traverse rights for the selected query folder. Some reporting tools do not support OData with OAuth2 security. For example, Desktop MS Power BI Report Builder and Public Desktop Tableau do not support third-party OAuth2 authentication.
2. Paste the API secret key here (Ctrl-v)
3. Select and copy (Ctrl-c) the resulting OData URL URL here. This is the URL that you will paste in the reporting tool's OData data import window.
4. Close the window

Step 8: Open the reporting tool and enter the GroveStreams OData URL

• MS Power BI Report Builder: Select Get Data..., Select OData Feed, paste the OData URL from Step 7, select Anonymous when for security when using an API Key.
• Tableau: Select Data - New Data Source, Select To a Server OData, paste the OData URL from Step 7, select No Authentication for security when using an API Key.
• Other Reporting Tool: Ask your favorite AI tool for OData instructions.

Troubleshooting

• Ensure the OData URL ends with a forward slash ('/').
• Verify that query names (and possibly column names, depending on the reporting tool) contain no spaces or special characters.
• Reporting tools often struggle to display detailed OData query errors. Check your GroveStreams organization’s System Notifications for more specific error messages.
• Test the GroveStreams OData URL from Step 7 by pasting it into a browser. It should return an XML feed. Review the response for any error details.

GroveStrams OData Details

• Reporting tools are tied to the query folder used to generate the OData URL, which includes the folder’s UID. Adding new queries to this folder will appear in the reporting tool’s OData connection upon refresh.
• The GroveStreams query folder can be renamed or moved without affecting the reporting tool. However, renaming queries or result columns will likely disrupt the reporting tool, as it relies on those specific names.
• The GroveStreams OData API allows you to query data using standard OData parameters, controlling what data is retrieved and how it’s displayed. Reporting tools will append these parameters to the URL after a '?' character, separating multiple parameters with '&'.
• Many external tools, such as Microsoft Power BI Report Builder, use these parameters to minimize data transfer and boost performance. For optimal results, optimize GroveStreams queries to return only the data required by the tool.
• Below is a list of OData query parameters supported by the GroveStreams OData connector:
  • $top
  • $skip
  • $filter
  • $orderby
  • $select
  • $count