This post explains how to use Stitch to connect to a web data source and bring the data into a database. Stitch is a 3rd party tool that specializes in connecting to web data sources and loading the data into a data warehouse of your choice. Most data sources you can connect directly to Sisense, however some data source like Facebook can have a complex API and require advanced technical knowledge in building and maintaining the connection. Stitch simplifies this process by building and maintaining the connection and loading the data in to a database of your choice.
***Disclaimer: Stitch Data is not the only method for connecting to data sources. Sisense offers native connectors and can use ODBC drivers. Stitch is a paid service that allows nontechnical users to connect complex APIs.
Prior to going to Stitch data, please check out our Connectors Page and see if there is a prebuild Connector. You can also check if the company of your cloud source provides a native ODBC driver. If there is a driver you can use the Sisense Generic ODBC Driver to connect directly to your data source. If you wish to build your own connect, please refer tour our Custom Rest Connector documentation.
Implementation
Step 1: Go to https://www.stitchdata.com/integrations/ and Identify the connector for your data source. For this instance we are going to use Facebook Ads.
You will need to set a name for the connection, the time frame for historical data, and the replication frequency. The replication frequency is how often the data will be loaded from the data source. This will affect the number of rows in the database as this is how often the data will sync with the source. A High frequency (such as a half hour) can lead to exceeding row limits and causing overages.
In the case of using facebook you will need to select an ad account.
Step 2: Choose the tables and fields you want stitch to move into your data warehouse. There will be documentation on the accessible schema on Stitch’s website. You can use the schema to determine which fields you want to add.
Step 3. Select a database from the following list you would like to store your data in. You can either use an existing database or create a new one. In this case a Google Big Query Project was created.
Once set up, Stitch will test the connection and begin storing the data in the chosen database.
OPTIONAL: Setting up a Google Big Query Project.
Step 4: Connect to the database from the Elasticube Management tool.
For this example, the Sisense Google Big Query ODBC Driver needed to be installed and the Generic ODBC driver was used to connect to the database. For more information on connecting to Big Query, please review this article.
Step 5: Build!