Simple JSON/XML Web Data Connector

Built by Keshia Rose

This is a simple Web Data Connector for JSON and XML files, text, and URLs.

URL: https://json-xml-wdc.herokuapp.com/

Simply paste in your URL or data or just drag and drop a file.

Next, choose which fields to bring in to Tableau. You can select or clear all or individual fields, or select the parent of a nested object to change the selection of all within in.

You can also add multiple tables if your data has different levels of granularity.

This WDC only allows pulling in data from one source. If you need to pull data from multiple sources it may be best to use the WDC multiple times or to create a custom WDC.

Why did I build this?

I've noticed that there are a lot of people asking in our community forums how to connect to very simple data endpoints. Mostly public data that might be refreshed every so often. The answer we usually give is to build your own WDC. While for some that may be a simple task, I felt like it shouldn't be necessary to connect to a single source of data for quick analysis. When we first launched Web Data Connectors we had a sample that allowed you to connect to JSON endpoints. We removed and stopped updating this sample once we included the ability to connect to JSON files natively in the product. But we are still missing the ability to connect to simple URLs and XML. That's why I built this WDC, hopefully, it can help people who want to analyze a simple endpoint (or file, or just some stuff they copied) to do so without a heavy lift.

Limitations

• Complex or super-nested data structures may fail
• Only pulls data from one URL endpoint, no pagination
• Data brought in from a file will not refresh, but URLs will
• No incremental extract refreshes

How to deploy your own

I suggest deploying your own version of this WDC so you can have a dedicated application for your own use. Here are a few options for spinning up your own:

1. Deploy it on Heroku
2. Remix it on glitch

Or you could host it locally by doing the following:

1. Install Node.js.
2. Clone or download and unzip this repository.
3. Open the command line within the JSON-XML-WDC master folder and run npm install to install the node modules.
4. Then run npm start to start the web server or use something like pm2 for a production environment.

How to refresh

Tableau Server

If you want to use this WDC on your Tableau Server you will first need to add it to your safelist with the following commands:

tsm data-access web-data-connectors add --name "JSON XML WDC" --url https://json-xml-wdc.herokuapp.com:443
tsm pending-changes apply

Note that this will require your Tableau Server to restart!

Tableau Online

If you want to use this WDC on Tableau Online you will need to set it up using Tableau Bridge

Questions?

Open an issue!

Support

I gladly host this WDC for free but if you would like to chip in for hosting you can buy me some cheese🧀!