Looker–Tableau BI Connector (Public Preview)

Preview

As used with Looker (original), this feature is subject to the "Beta Feature Offering Terms" in the Looker Service Specific Terms for Looker (original).

As used with Looker (Google Cloud core), this feature is subject to the "Pre-GA Offerings Terms" in the General Service Terms of the Service Specific Terms (for Google Cloud Platform). The Cloud Data Processing Addendum (Customers) will apply to the extent the feature interacts with production data in your Looker instance.

This feature is available "as is" and might have limited support.

The Looker–Tableau BI Connector lets you use Tableau Desktop to connect to data from a Looker Explore. The Looker–Tableau BI Connector is built upon the Looker Open SQL Interface, which allows access to LookML models and Explores for applications that use JDBC to connect to data sources. See the Open SQL Interface documentation for more details.

This guide is for the Public Preview of the Looker–Tableau BI Connector. To ask questions or share feedback, send an email to [e-mail].

Requirements

The following components are required to use the Looker–Tableau BI Connector:

• A Looker instance that is Looker-hosted and running Looker 23.18 or later.
• A LookML project that uses data from a Google BigQuery connection. (The LookML project must have a model file that specifies a Google BigQuery connection in its connection parameter.)
• A Looker user role that includes the explore permission on the LookML model that you want to access from Tableau.

In addition, you need to complete the following steps before setting up the Looker–Tableau BI Connector:

• For Looker (original) instances, enable the SQL Interface experimental Labs feature on the Looker instance.
• For Looker (Google Cloud core) instances, fill out the Looker SQL Interface Pre-GA Agreement interest form. The Google team will enable the SQL Interface feature for your instance.

Setting up Tableau Desktop to connect to Looker

To use the Looker–Tableau BI Connector in Public Preview, you will need to do the following:

Note: This procedure assumes that you already have Tableau Desktop installed on your computer.

1. Add the Tableau OAuth app to your Looker instance: A Looker admin must use the Looker API to register the Tableau OAuth app for the Looker–Tableau BI Connector on your Looker instance. The Tableau OAuth app needs to be registered only once for each Looker instance and applies to all users on the Looker instance.
2. Download and save the Tableau Connector file and the JDBC driver file: Each user who wants to access the Looker–Tableau BI Connector must download the avatica-<release_number>-looker.jar file and the packaged Tableau connector (.taco) file, and then save the files in specific directories on their computer.

The following sections describe these steps in detail.

Add the Tableau OAuth app to your Looker instance

The Looker–Tableau BI Connector requires that you have the Tableau OAuth app on your Looker instance. The easiest way to register the Tableau OAuth app on your Looker instance is through the Looker API Explorer.

If your Looker instance already has API Explorer installed, you can access it with this URL format:

https://<YOUR LOOKER INSTANCE URL>/extensions/marketplace_extension_api_explorer::api-explorer/

If your Looker instance doesn't have the API Explorer, you can install it from the Looker Marketplace. See the Using the API Explorer page for information.

Use the API Explorer to register the Tableau OAuth app on your Looker instance, as described in the following steps:

1. Open the Looker API Explorer (see the Using the API Explorer page for information).
2. In the API Explorer's Search field, enter Register OAuth App.
3. In the search results, click Register OAuth App.
4. On the Register OAuth App page, click the Run It button.

5. In the Request tab of the Run It dialog, enter the following information into the corresponding fields:

   • client_guid:

     35FBB268-0CB0-4822-AFE3-28638C1C6269
     

   • body:

     {
     "redirect_uri": "http://localhost:55556/Callback",
     "display_name": "Tableau Desktop",
     "description": "Tableau Desktop client for JDBC Server",
     "enabled": true,
     "group_id": ""
     }
     

6. Select the checkbox for I understand that this API endpoint will change data.

7. Click Run.

8. You can verify that you successfully registered the Tableau OAuth app by using the Get OAuth Client App method in the API Explorer:

   • In the API Explorer's Search field, enter Get OAuth Client App.
   • Click Run It.

   • In the client_guid field, enter the Tableau OAuth app's value:

     35FBB268-0CB0-4822-AFE3-28638C1C6269
     

   If you registered the Tableau OAuth app successfully, the Response tab will return the values you entered when you registered the app.

This step is not required; however, if in the future you are no longer using the Looker–Tableau BI Connector and you want to remove the Tableau OAuth app, see Removing the OAuth app.

Download and save the connector files

To use the Looker–Tableau BI Connector, each Tableau user must download these two files:

• The Tableau connector (.taco) file
• The JDBC driver (looker.jar) file

The following sections provide instructions for downloading these files and where to put them on your computer.

Tableau connector (.taco) file

The Tableau connector file is called looker-jdbc-v0.2.0.taco. Each user must download the .taco file and save it to their computer using the following steps:

1. To download the Tableau connector file, click the following link: looker-jdbc-v0.2.0.taco.

2. When the download is completed, move the looker-jdbc-v0.2.0.taco file to the Connectors subdirectory of the My Tableau Repository directory. Here are the default directory paths:

   • Windows: C:\Users\\[Windows User]\Documents\My Tableau Repository\Connectors

   • MacOS: /Users/[user]/Documents/My Tableau Repository/Connectors

     Note: In case your setup doesn't use the default location for the My Tableau Repository directory, you can get the actual location by selecting File > Repository Location from the Tableau Desktop app on your computer.

JDBC driver (looker.jar) file

The JDBC driver is called avatica-<release_number>-looker.jar. Each user must download the looker.jar file from GitHub and save the file to their computer by following these steps:

1. Go to https://github.com/looker-open-source/calcite-avatica/releases.
2. Download the latest version of the avatica-<release_number>-looker.jar file.

3. Save the avatica-<release_number>-looker.jar file to each user's computer in the following location:

   • Windows: C:\Program Files\Tableau\Drivers

   • MacOS: /Library/JDBC or ~/Library/JDBC

     Note: For macOS, manually create the JDBC directory if it does not already exist.

Connecting to Looker data from Tableau Desktop

After you have added the Tableau OAuth app to your Looker instance and downloaded the looker-jdbc-v0.2.0.taco and the avatica-<release_number>-looker.jar files, you can use Tableau Desktop to connect to data from your Looker instance by following these steps:

1. In Tableau Desktop, from the left-side Connect pane, in the To a Server section, select the More... option.
2. In the search box, enter Looker by Google.
3. Select the Looker by Google option.
4. In the dialog window, enter these parameters:
   • Server: Enter your Looker instance URL without the https://. For example: example.cloud.looker.com
   • Port: 443
   • Authentication: OAuth
   • OAuth Instance Url: Enter your full Looker instance URL with the https://. For example: https://example.cloud.looker.com
5. Select Sign In. Tableau will open a browser window to connect to your Looker instance and authenticate your account with OAuth.
6. If prompted, enter your OAuth credentials. If you are already logged in, you will see a message in the browser window that Tableau used the browser window to authenticate into Looker and that you can now close the browser window.
7. After you have authenticated into Looker, Tableau will open a Data Source page with a connection to your Looker instance.
8. Use the Schema drop-down menu to select a Looker model with the data that you want to view in Tableau Desktop. Tableau will populate the Table list with the Looker Explores from the Looker model that you selected.
9. To start exploring the data, select and drag an object from the Tables list to the canvas.

Identifying Looker–Tableau BI Connector queries in the Looker UI

Queries from Tableau are made through the Open SQL Interface. Looker admins can use the Looker UI to identify which queries originated from the Open SQL Interface, as described in the Open SQL Interface documentation.

Queries from the Looker–Tableau BI Connector have a Source value of "sql_interface" or "Sql Interface".

Things to consider

When you're exploring Looker data with Tableau Desktop, note the following considerations:

• The Looker–Tableau BI Connector is built upon the Looker Open SQL Interface, and has the same LookML limitations as the Open SQL Interface. See the Open SQL Interface documentation for more details.
• Tableau automatically queries the database whenever a change is made to the query, including when fields are added and removed using the Looker–Tableau BI Connector. You can turn off automatic updates in Tableau: Refer to the Tableau documentation for more information.
• You cannot use Tableau to join two Looker Explores. If you want to join Explores, use Looker to create the joins in your Looker model. See the Looker documentation pages Working with joins in LookML and join parameters for information on using joins in Looker.

To report a bug

To report a bug, send an email to [e-mail] and include the following information:

• A detailed list of the steps you took
• The expected behavior
• The actual behavior (with a screenshot, if possible)

Removing the Tableau OAuth app (optional)

This step is not required. However, if in the future you are no longer using the Looker–Tableau BI Connector and you want to remove the Tableau OAuth app from your Looker instance, you can do so with the API Explorer by following these steps:

1. Open the Looker API Explorer (see the Using the API Explorer page for information).
2. In the API Explorer's Search field, enter Delete OAuth Client App.
3. In the search results, click Delete OAuth Client App.
4. On the Delete OAuth Client App page, click the Run It button.

5. In the Request tab of the Run It dialog, enter the Tableau OAuth app's client_guid value:

   35FBB268-0CB0-4822-AFE3-28638C1C6269
   

6. Select the checkbox for I understand that this API endpoint will change data.

7. You can verify that you successfully removed the Tableau OAuth app by using the Get OAuth Client App method in the API Explorer:

   • In the API Explorer's Search field, enter Get OAuth Client App.
   • Click Run It.

   • In the client_guid field, enter the Tableau OAuth app's value:

     35FBB268-0CB0-4822-AFE3-28638C1C6269
     

   If you successfully removed the Tableau OAuth app, the Response tab will return empty body values.