Tableau: import JSON data from simple REST call - json

Question

I have a REST API (served by an external server) replying JSON formatted data.
From what I read from Tableau doc, there's available:
- WebDataConnector but you have to add a JS overload on your webpages, not very suitable for REST APIs
- importing JSON data from file, but doesn't answer my issue
Isn't there a simple way to integrate JSON data requested via REST call ?

Answer 1

You can use WDC, you are wrong that its not suitable for REST API. So you basically need to create 2 functions for getting fields and data for your datasets from API:
myConnector.getSchema = function (schemaCallback) {
$.ajax({
url: apiurl + JSON.parse(tableau.connectionData)['diggerID'] + "/sessions/last/data/one",
type: "GET",
headers: {
'Authorization': 'Token ' + JSON.parse(tableau.connectionData)['apiKey']
},
success: function(response){
var flatten = objectFlatten(response)
var columns = []
for (var key in flatten) {
var id = key.replace(/[^A-Za-z0-9_]+/g, '')
columns.push({
id: id,
alias: key,
dataType: tableauType(flatten[key])
})
}
var table = {
id: "digger_" + JSON.parse(tableau.connectionData)['diggerID'],
alias: tableau.connectionName,
columns: columns
}
schemaCallback([table]);
},
error: function (xhr, ajaxOptions, thrownError) {
tableau.abortWithError("Unable to get data. Make sure you used proper API key and you have at least one session for selected digger with dataset.");
}
});
};
myConnector.getData = function (table, doneCallback) {
$.ajax({
url: apiurl + JSON.parse(tableau.connectionData)['diggerID'] + "/sessions/last/data",
type: "GET",
headers: {
'Authorization': 'Token ' + JSON.parse(tableau.connectionData)['apiKey']
},
success: function(response){
var data = []
for (var i=0; i < response.length; i++) {
var flatten = objectFlatten(response[i])
var rec = {}
for (var key in flatten) {
var id = key.replace(/[^A-Za-z0-9_]+/g, '')
rec[id] = flatten[key]
}
data.push(rec)
}
table.appendRows(data);
doneCallback();
},
error: function (xhr, ajaxOptions, thrownError) {
tableau.abortWithError("Unable to get data. Make sure you used proper API key and you have at least one session for selected digger with dataset.");
}
});
};
For complete code you can check out for source code on github: https://github.com/Diggernaut/diggernaut-wdc