Create an OAuth Connector


🕐 5 min read

The OAuth boilerplate is a connector that ingests JSON data with ingestDataRows Fetch API and built-in TACO data parser.

Use cases

Note: The OAuth connector has a dependency on the OAuth support from Tableau. This connector can’t be running with the EPS standalone server. `taco start`` won’t work with OAuth connector.

Instructions

To create your OAuth connector, we recommend that you first create a boilerplate OAuth connector and edit the generated files. It’s easier to get all the files and directory structure your connector needs by just using an existing example.

To create your OAuth connector, do the following steps.

Step 1: Create a boilerplate OAuth connector

  1. Enter the following command to create the connector:

    taco create my-oauth-connector --boilerplate oauth 
    

    This creates a directory with the earthquake data boilerplate code, which is included with the toolkit.

  2. Change directories to the my-oauth-connector directory.
    cd my-oauth-connector
    
  3. Build the connector by entering the following command:

    taco build
    

    This command clears any previous or existing build caches, then installs the dependencies, then builds the frontend code and the backend code (handlers), then copies the connector.json file (the configuration file).

Step 2: Configure your connector’s properties

In your new OAuth connector directory, find and open the connector.json file.

{
  "name": "my-oauth-connector",
  "displayName": "OAuth Sample Connector",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "tableau-version": {
    "min": "2023.3"
  },
  "vendor": {
    "name": "vendor-name",
    "support-link": "https://vendor-name.com",
    "email": "support@vendor-name.com"
  },
  "auth": {
    "type": "oauth2",
    "oauth": {
      "clientIdDesktop": "[Your client id]",
      "clientSecretDesktop": "[Your client secret]",
      "redirectUrisDesktop": [
        "http://localhost:55555/Callback"
      ],
      "authUri": "[Your auth URI]",
      "tokenUri": "[Your token URI]",
      "userInfoUri": "[Your API user info URI]",
      "scopes": [
        "Scope 1",
        "Scope 2"
      ],
      "capabilities": {
        "OAUTH_CAP_FIXED_PORT_IN_CALLBACK_URL": true,
        "OAUTH_CAP_CLIENT_SECRET_IN_URL_QUERY_PARAM": true,
        "OAUTH_CAP_PKCE_REQUIRES_CODE_CHALLENGE_METHOD": true,
        "OAUTH_CAP_REQUIRE_PKCE": true
      },
      "accessTokenResponseMaps": {
        "ACCESSTOKEN": "access_token",
        "REFRESHTOKEN": "refresh_token",
        "access-token-issue-time": "issued_at",
        "access-token-expires-in": "expires_in",
        "username": "username"
      }
    }
  },
  "permission": {
    "api": {
      "https://*.example.com/": [
        "GET",
        "POST"
      ]
    }
  },
  "window": {
    "height": 900,
    "width": 770
  }
}

Make the following changes:

  1. Change the general properties.

    Name Value
    name Your connector’s directory name
    displayName Your connector’s name. This is the name that appears in the Tableau connectors area.
    version Your connector’s version
    min The earliest Tableau version your connector supports
  2. Change the company properties.

    Name Value
    vendor.name Your company name
    vendor.support-link Your company’s URL
    vendor.email Your company’s email
  3. Change the permissions.

    Name Value
    permission.api The URI for the API that the connector is allowed to access, along with the methods (POST, GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE) that the connector is allowed to use.
  4. Set the authentication values.

    Name Value
    auth.type Set to oauth2
    auth.oauth For configuration information, see Configuring for OAuth

    For more information about authentication, see the Authentication section in the Considerations for Building Your Connector topic.

  5. Change the HTML pane size.

    Name Value
    window.height The height of the connector HTML pane
    window.width The width of the connector HTML pane

Step 3: Edit the user interface

When you open a web data connector in Tableau, the connector displays an HTML page that links to your code and to your connector’s handlers. Optionally, this page can also display a user interface (UI) for your users to select the data that they want to download.

The /app/components/ConnectorView.tsx file is the main component for the connector UI. You can modify or replace this file based on your connector UI requirements.

Step 4: Edit the connector object

The /app/components/useConnector.ts file contains a custom React hook that abstracts common connector object operations. * The hook creates a connector object. A component can:

The following is the code in userConnector.ts file for the connector creation.

const [connector] = useState<Connector>(
    () =>
      new Connector(
        (connector: Connector) => {
          Logger.info('Connector initialized.')

          const oauthCredentials = connector.oAuthCredentials
          setConnectorState({ ...connectorState, oauthCredentials, isInitializing: false })
        },
        (_: Connector, error: Error) => {
          Logger.error(`Connector Initialized Error: ${error.message}`)
          setConnectorState({ ...connectorState, errorMessage: error.message, isInitializing: false })
        }
      )
  )

Step 5: Update the fetcher file

If your data is complex and needs preprocessing, use the TACO Toolkit library to prepare your data. The following is the default code that the /handlers/DataFetcher.ts file uses to get the data:

import { Fetcher, FetchUtils, FetchOptions, DataRow, getOAuthHeader } from '@tableau/taco-toolkit/handlers'

interface User {
  id: string
  name: string
  address: { street: string; state: string; country: string }
}

export default class DataFetcher extends Fetcher {
  async *fetch({ secrets }: FetchOptions) {
    // PLACEHOLDER: the url is NOT real endpoint.
    // Replace them with actual endpoint for corresponding file type.
    // Note: the permission setting in connector.json also needs to be updated accordingly.
    const url = 'https://www.example.com/api/user'
    const headers = getOAuthHeader(secrets)
    const users = await FetchUtils.fetchJson(url, { headers })

    // Convert JSON response into DataRow[] type
    const rows: DataRow[] = users.map((user: User) => {
      const {
        id,
        name,
        address: { street, state, country },
      } = user
      return { id, name, street, state, country }
    })

    yield await FetchUtils.ingestDataRows(rows)
  }
}

Step 6: Build your connector

Enter these commands to build, pack, and run your new connector:

taco build
taco pack
taco run Desktop