How to connect Neo4j Connector for BI to an AuraDB Instance

The Neo4j BI connector delivers direct access to Neo4j graph data from business intelligence (BI) tools built on the compatible Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) and Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) standards such as Tableau, Power BI, Looker, TIBCO Spotfire Server, Microstrategy and more. 

For the purpose of this document, we will be using BI Connector integration (JDBC) with Tableau Desktop on Mac os, to connect to a Neo4j AuraDB instance.

Install BI Connector on Tableau Desktop

The first step is to download the Neo4j Connector for BI by navigating to here, select the required JDBC or ODBC file from the drop down list and click on the Download button.

You should ensure the JAR file has been installed on Tableau Desktop as the data source must be published from Desktop to Server. Install the plugin by extracting the JDBC JAR file from the downloaded zip in to the appropriate driver directory, ~/Library/Tableau/Drivers

Create datasource to connect to a Neo4j AuraDB instance

Using Tableau’s "Other JDBC Connection" option, you need to create a datasource connected to a Neo4j AuraDB instance using the appropriate JDBC connection string, which should look like this:

jdbc:neo4j://mydbid.databases.neo4j.io?SSL=true

Note that in JDBC, you always have to start with "jdbc:neo4j" this tells your java layer which driver to use, the JDBC one provided by Neo4j.