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

Tableau published data sources

Published data sources are the primary method of sharing data models between analytics users. A published data source contains all the information a person will need to start creating visualizations, namely, a published data source can have the following:

  • The connection string to the underlying database or the reference to a Tableau virtual connection
  • Metadata changes relating to the renaming and casting of fields into new data types
  • Descriptions of fields
  • Embedded flat files
  • Organization of fields into hierarchies and folders for easier navigation
  • Reusable calculations

Published data sources can be created in three different places in Tableau: Tableau Desktop, Tableau Prep Builder, and from the home page in the web client. In this chapter, we will look at the creation of published data sources from Tableau Desktop and the home page in the web client. We will create a published data source from Tableau Prep Builder in...