We've partnered with Tableau to develop a Web Data Connector (WDC) for Fulcrum, enabling seamless integration between your field data and one of the most popular data viz tools available.
Tableau Web Data Connectors (WDC)
Tableau provides a Web Data Connector Software Development Kit (SDK) that enables developers to build custom connectors to ingest data from their web APIs directly within Tableau. The WDC is an HTML page with JavaScript code that connects to web data (by means of a REST API), converts the data to a standard JSON format, and passes the data to Tableau.
Using the Fulcrum WDC
The Fulcrum WDC can connect to your Fulcrum data via Data Shares or the Fulcrum Query API.
Prerequisites:
Fulcrum organization with Data Shares and/or Developer Pack enabled (Professional/Enterprise).
If connecting via the Query API, be sure to generate an API Token for use in Tableau.
Tableau Desktop or Tableau Public installed.
Getting Started
From within a Tableau workbook, look for the
Connect -> To a Server -> Web Data Connectorbutton or find the New Data Source button along the top toolbar and click it.This will open a Web Data Connector window. Copy the URL to the Fulcrum WDC - https://fulcrumapp.github.io/tableau-webdataconnector/ and paste it into the Enter your web data connector URL here input.
Press Enter/Return to load the Fulcrum WDC page.
Select the data source:
Data ShareorQuery APIand be sure to fill out the other required inputs.
Connecting to Data Shares
From the Fulcrum app dashboard page, click on the Data Share tab and enable data sharing if necessary.
Copy the data share link and paste it into the connector input. Remove everything except the data share token/ID.
Click the Get Data button and wait for the metadata to load.
Click the Update Now button and wait for the data to load.
Connecting to the Query API
From the Fulcrum WDC window, set the Source input to
Query APIEnter your Fulcrum API Token.
Paste in a SQL Query to fetch the data you want to make available in Tableau.
Click the Get Data button and wait for the metadata to load.
Click the Update Now button and wait for the data to load.
How it Works
The source code for the Fulcrum Web Data Connector for Tableau is available on GitHub. The Fulcrum WDC is a simple Bootstrap page with form inputs to capture the data source, token, and/or query. This connection information is used to make an HTTP request to Fulcrum to fetch the records. The Tableau Web Data Connector JavaScript SDK is used to configure the connection, schema, and data expected with appropriate callbacks to Tableau.
Note that the connection data will be saved in the Tableau Workbook (.twb file) for convenience. Use caution when sharing or publishing your connection information.