The Flywheel Audience Builder Application connects directly to Redshift so you can leverage the customer data in your data warehouse to create audiences with just a few clicks.
Requirements to Connect to Amazon Redshift
In order to establish a connection to your Redshift data warehouse, we must first comply with the following requirements:
- The user has access to your AWS account and Amazon Redshift cluster
- The user has an admin role to access the Redshift cluster and must also have create schema privileges.
- The Redshift cluster must be publicly accessible. The following images can walk you through how to enable this:
- Flywheel’s NAT IP must be added to your Redshift Security Groups in order to allow the Audience Builder application to reach your Redshift instance. Reach out to solutions@flywheelsoftware.com for this IP address.
- Your Redshift cluster must be spun up and connected to a database.
- Create a schema called flywheel_system in the Redshift cluster’s database. To do this, in the query editor, paste and run this command: create schema flywheel_system
- If you will be using Signal Routing, you must also create the signal_snapshots schema. To do so, run this command in the Redshift cluster’s query editor: create schema signal_snapshots
Now, we can connect to Amazon Redshift in the Flywheel Application!
Connect to Redshift in the Flywheel Application
First, navigate to your Flywheel application in any browser via the URL provided to you by a Flywheel team member.
Sign up using your company email, and verify your email by following the on-screen instructions.
Return to the application and enter your Organization Name and Industry. Review the Terms of Service and check the box to agree. Then click Continue.
Select Redshift as the data warehouse you wish to connect to.
Next, enter the following required information to connect to Redshift:
- Name: Choose any name for the data warehouse connection you prefer.
- Description: Enter any description for the data warehouse connection you prefer.
- Username: The Redshift username for the user that allows access to the Redshift cluster where your data is stored. This can be found on the Redshift cluster UI’s Properties tab, or in the Query Editor when connected to your database.
- Password: The admin user password for the user that allows access to the Redshift cluster where your data is stored. You can change the admin user password in the Redshift cluster UI’s Properties tab, if necessary.
- Database: The name of the database that you want to connect to the app.
- Schema: The name of schema for the table you want to connect to the app. For example, If you are looking to connect your user table to the app, select the user schema.
- Host: The database endpoint, without the port and database name. You can find the host embedded in the cluster endpoint. The endpoint has this format: <host>:<port>/<database> Remove the port and database name, leaving just the host. For example: redshift-cluster-testname0123.us-east-1.redshift.amazonaws.com. Enter the edited host as the host in the app
- Port: Open port to access the database. The port can be found in the Redshift cluster UI’s Properties tab, or as part of the database endpoint. The format of the endpoint is <host>:<port>/<database>
Now to Connect Your First Customer Table!
After your connection has been established, click Continue and you will be directed to connect you first Customer table.
For Dataset, enter the schema you want to point to in your Redshift cluster.
For Table, select the desired customer table you are looking to connect found in the schema selected above.
For Table Alias, enter any name for this table you'd like. This name will be used in the application to help you know which table you are filtering on.
For Table Description, enter any description you'd like, if desired, to help explain this table to any application users.
Next, scroll down and you will see Table Configuration setup:
In this modal, select the unique key field for this table, the Device ID field (if you have one, otherwise indicate email or phone number field, if available), and any fields you wish to show on default in the Audience Builder application. This can always be changed and configured later per your user's preferences.
Then, click Finish and you will be redirected to your Audiences landing page. You are now all set to begin building your first audience!
Issues Connecting?
Reach out at any time to solutions@flywheelsoftware.com should you encounter any issues when connecting to your Redshift data warehouse. We are always happy to help troubleshoot for your specific circumstance!
What’s next?
Now that you've connected your data warehouse source and set up your first customer table, learn how to create an audience! Check out Create an Audience for more details.
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