Tableau (beta)

Beta functionality

The Tableau integration with the dbt Semantic Layer is a beta feature.

The Tableau integration allows you to use worksheets to query the Semantic Layer directly and produce your dashboards with trusted data.

This integration provides a live connection to the dbt Semantic Layer through Tableau Desktop.

Prerequisites

1. You must have Tableau Desktop installed with version 2021.1 or greater
   • Note that Tableau Online does not currently support custom connectors natively.
2. Log in to Tableau Desktop using either your license or the login details you use for Tableau Server or Tableau Online.
3. You need your dbt Cloud host, Environment ID and service token to log in. This account should be set up with the dbt Semantic Layer.
4. You must have a dbt Cloud Team or Enterprise account and multi-tenant deployment. (Single-Tenant coming soon)

Installing

1. Download the GitHub connector file locally and add it to your default folder:
   • Windows: C:\Users\\[Windows User]\Documents\My Tableau Repository\Connectors
   • Mac: /Users/[user]/Documents/My Tableau Repository/Connectors
   • Linux: /opt/tableau/connectors
2. Install the JDBC driver to the folder based on your operating system:
   • Windows: C:\Program Files\Tableau\Drivers
   • Mac: ~/Library/Tableau/Drivers
   • Linux: /opt/tableau/tableau_driver/jdbc
3. Open Tableau Desktop and find the dbt Semantic Layer by dbt Labs connector on the left-hand side.
4. Connect with your Host, Environment ID, and service token information that's provided to you in your dbt Cloud Semantic Layer configuration.

Using the integration

Once you authenticate, the system will direct you to the data source page with all the metrics and dimensions configured in your Semantic Layer.

• From there, go directly to a worksheet in the bottom left-hand corner.
• Then, you'll find all the metrics and dimensions that are available to query on the left-hand side of your window.

Visit the Tableau documentation to learn more about how to use Tableau worksheets and dashboards.

Things to note

• All metrics use the "SUM" aggregation type, and this can't be altered. The dbt Semantic Layer controls the aggregation type and it is intentionally fixed. Keep in mind that the underlying aggregation in the dbt Semantic Layer might not be "SUM" (even though "SUM" is Tableau's default).
• Tableau surfaces all metrics and dimensions from the dbt Semantic Layer on the left-hand side. Note, that not all metrics and dimensions can be combined with one another. You will receive an error message if a particular dimension cannot be sliced with a metric (or vice versa).
  • To display available metrics and dimensions, dbt Semantic Layer returns metadata for a fake table with the dimensions and metrics as 'columns' on this table. Because of this, you can't actually query this table for previews or extracts.
  • Since this is treated as a table, dbt Semantic Layer can't dynamically change what is available. This means we display all available metrics and dimensions even if a particular metric and dimension combination isn't available.
• Certain Table calculations like "Totals" and "Percent Of" may not be accurate when using metrics aggregated in a non-additive way (such as count distinct)
• In any of our Semantic Layer interfaces (not only Tableau), you must include a time dimension when working with any cumulative metric that has a time window or granularity.

Unsupported functionality

The following Tableau features aren't supported at this time, however, the dbt Semantic Layer may support some of this functionality in a future release:

• Updating the data source page
• Using "Extract" mode to view your data
• Unioning Tables
• Writing Custom SQL
• Table Extensions
• Cross Database Joins
• All functions in Analysis --> Create Calculated Field
• Filtering on a Date Part time dimension for a Cumulative metric type
• Changing your date dimension to use "Week Number"