Integration guidelines

Before you get started with embedding ThoughtSpot, you must analyze your integration requirements and choose an appropriate embedding method.

Define application workflows

The ThoughtSpot Visual Embed SDK includes a Javascript library to programmatically embed search, Liveboards, visualizations, and the full ThoughtSpot experience.

In addition to the Visual Embed SDK, ThoughtSpot provides REST APIs to query data from the ThoughtSpot application. For example, you can construct a search answer using the data APIs and use this link to embed search answers with your application.

Irrespective of the method you use for embedding, make sure you define your application workflows and authentication criteria to enable seamless navigation between your host app and the embedded interfaces.

Define user roles and privileges

The ThoughtSpot application integration involves several workflows that require users to have specific privileges:

ThoughtSpot admin
ThoughtSpot administrators who define the authentication workflow and create user groups.
Access control in ThoughtSpot is managed through the users and groups that are stored locally on ThoughtSpot, even if the users are authenticated using SSO or Trusted Authentication. This means that to provide access to content or system privileges, admin users must create users and groups in ThoughtSpot.
For more information, see Managing Users and Managing groups.

Developer
Application developers with privileges to use the Developer portal and embed ThoughtSpot components in their host application.
Developer users can also customize the look and feel of the UI, add custom actions to an embedded visualization or Liveboard, and modify security settings such as CORS and CSP.
For more information, see Developer access.

Define an authentication method

For initial development and testing purposes, you can use the basic authentication method with the session APIs to manage ThoughtSpot user logins and sessions.

For embedded instances, ThoughtSpot recommends that you use SAML SSO or trusted authentication to authenticate users in production environments.

For more information about supported authentication methods, see Authentication and security.

Define security settings

Before embedding, you must enable CSP and CORS settings in the Developer portal for cross-domain communication.

For more information, see Configure security settings.

Try it out

The ThoughtSpot Developer portal provides a playground for developers to explore the Visual Embed SDK and APIs. The Playground offers an interactive coding experience for developers to evaluate the APIs and embed ThoughtSpot search, visualizations, Liveboards, or the full ThoughtSpot experience within their host application.

For more information, see ThoughtSpot Developer portal.