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

Licensing Considerations and Types of Data Models

Tableau licensing has an impact on how a person can create and maintain data models. First, Tableau has role-based pricing for individual users of the platform. Second, Tableau has different tiers for how organizations license Tableau, which impacts data modeling capabilities.

Tableau data models are used by analysts and developers to create Tableau workbooks. Workbooks are a series of sheets, dashboards, and stories. Every workbook must be connected to a minimum of one data model. These data models can be embedded in the workbook, meaning they are only available in the workbook. Alternatively, they can be published separately and made available in many workbooks; these are called published data sources. We will create both types in this chapter.

Data models can also connect live to data sources. This means the queries from the model are serviced by the underlying data server. Data can also be extracted into the Tableau data engine...