Book Image

Data Modeling with Tableau

By : Kirk Munroe
Book Image

Data Modeling with Tableau

By: Kirk Munroe

Overview of this book

Tableau is unlike most other BI platforms that have a single data modeling tool and enterprise data model (for example, LookML from Google’s Looker). That doesn’t mean Tableau doesn’t have enterprise data governance; it is both robust and highly flexible. This book will help you effectively use Tableau governance models to build a data-driven organization. Data Modeling with Tableau is an extensive guide, complete with step-by-step explanations of essential concepts, practical examples, and hands-on exercises. As you progress through the chapters, you’ll learn the role that Tableau Prep Builder and Tableau Desktop each play in data modeling. You’ll also explore the components of Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud that make data modeling more robust, secure, and performant. Moreover, by extending data models for Ask and Explain Data, you’ll gain the knowledge required to extend analytics to more people in their organizations, leading to better data-driven decisions. Finally, this book will guide you through the entire Tableau stack and the techniques required to build the right level of governance into Tableau data models for the correct use cases. By the end of this Tableau book, you’ll have a firm understanding of how to leverage data modeling in Tableau to benefit your organization.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
1
Part 1: Data Modeling on the Tableau Platform
4
Part 2: Tableau Prep Builder for Data Modeling
9
Part 3: Tableau Desktop for Data Modeling
14
Part 4: Data Modeling with Tableau Server and Online

Connecting to Data in Tableau Desktop

The two primary tools for connecting to data in Tableau are Tableau Prep Builder and Tableau Desktop. Building off the previous four chapters, which covered Tableau Prep Builder, this chapter focuses on connecting to data in Tableau Desktop.

Tableau Desktop has connectors to many different data sources. These broadly fall into the categories of flat files, database servers, data from the web, and Tableau data servers, called published data sources.

In this chapter, we’re going to check out how to connect to each of these data sources through the following main topics:

  • Connecting to files in Tableau Desktop
  • The data interpreter feature and pivoting columns to rows
  • Connecting to data servers – on-premises, cloud, applications, and file shares
  • Web data connectors and additional connectors
  • Connecting to data sources that aren’t listed
  • Connecting to Tableau published data sources

Note

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