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

Curating data sources for Explain Data by telling the model which columns to use and ignore

Let’s look at Explain Data in action. We will begin by connecting to our Product Sales published data source. We can do this in Tableau Desktop or by creating a workbook from the web client of Tableau Server or Cloud. As we have been using Tableau Desktop in Chapter 8, Chapter 9, and Chapter 10, the examples in this section will use the web client. If you prefer, you can follow along using Tableau Desktop:

  1. From the home page on Tableau Server or Cloud, click on New | Workbook, as shown in Figure 12.12:
Figure 12.12 – New workbook

Figure 12.12 – New workbook

  1. You will be presented with a Connect to Data dialog. On the On This Site tab, select our Product Sales data source and click Connect. We are now in the workbook. Double-click on Sales in the data pane and then double-click on the Ship Mode field. Your screen should now look like Figure 12.13:
...