TABLEAU PUBLIC ODATA HOW TO
I started out by setting up the odata4j project in Eclipse and getting two examples I was interested in working: the XmlDataProducerExample which describes how to read an XML feed and expose it as an OData producer, and the ExampleProducerFactory example which demonstrates how to expose the OData producer in Tomcat. There are several implementations for it, and I ended up choosing the java odata4j framework for my experiment. OData is a relatively new, but very popular, internet data exchange protocol and it defines ways to send and request information from a service. In my searches, I was only able to find commercially licensed XML ODBC drivers, so my second approach, writing my own OData producer became more relevant. If you happen to have access to a DataDirect or other XML ODBC driver, you can convert the BI Service SOAP response into an XML feed (see jsp code below), and use that to build a DSN you can connect Tableau to.
TABLEAU PUBLIC ODATA DRIVER
Technically, this would have worked, but the driver, produced by DataDirect is licensed for use with Crystal only and trying to use it with Tableau (or any other client) produce an error message stating the driver can only be used for Crystal. Trying to use the Crystal Reports driver was a bust.
So, in theory, I should be able to create an XML feed off a BI service published from a webi report, and connect using this driver. I know that Crystal Reports for example has an ODBC driver that can connect to an XML feed. My first course of investigation was around the ODBC option. Two options caught my attention immediately as viable connectivity options, since they are relatively open: the “Other Databases (ODBC)” connection and the “OData” connection.
I started out by examining the data connections available in Tableau and looking for possible candidates I can use to connect to SAP BI and webi. So, I set to look for some solutions to this problem and was able to develop two good solutions that are automated and allow users to leverage the investment they already made in setting up webi reports through Tableau in an automated fashion. Tableau already has direct connectivity to HANA, however many users out there are looking for ways to connect their existing webi (web intelligence) reports to Tableau. I recently received several questions about connecting Tableau to SAP BI (Business Objects) as a data source.
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