Looker–Tableau BI Connector

The Looker–Tableau BI Connector lets you use a Looker Explore as a data source in Tableau. 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.

Before you begin

Your Looker instance must meet the following requirements to make use of the Looker–Tableau BI Connector:

  • Running Looker 24.14 or later.
  • Enabled for the Tableau Desktop BI connector. A Looker admin must enable the Tableau Desktop toggle on the Looker BI Connectors page.
  • Contains a LookML project that uses data from a Google BigQuery connection:
    • The LookML project must be configured so that the Allowed Connections field is set to the Only these connections option with at least one Google BigQuery connection selected. See the Accessing and editing project information documentation page for information on configuring a model and seeing the allowed connections for the model.
    • The LookML project must have a model file that specifies a BigQuery connection in its connection parameter.

In addition, each person using the Looker–Tableau BI Connector must have a Looker account with a user role that includes the explore permission on the LookML model that they want to access from Tableau.

Setting up Tableau Desktop to connect to Looker

Once all of the requirements are satisfied, you can set up Tableau Desktop to connect to Looker data.

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 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_v1.0.0.taco. Each user must download the TACO file and save it to their computer by using the following steps:

  1. To download the Tableau connector file, click the following link: looker_v1.0.0.taco

  2. When the download is completed, move the looker_v1.0.0.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/Mac user/Documents/My Tableau Repository/Connectors

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

Connecting to Looker data from Tableau Desktop

After you have downloaded and saved the looker_v1.0.0.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, log in to Looker. 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".

Using the Looker–Tableau BI Connector on Tableau Server

The Looker–Tableau BI Connector is not available on the Tableau Exchange, but you can install the Looker–Tableau BI Connector on Tableau Server by performing the procedures in the following sections:

Before you begin

Your Looker instance must meet the following requirements to use the Looker–Tableau BI Connector on Tableau Server:

  • Running Looker 24.14 or later.
  • Contains a LookML project that uses data from a Google BigQuery connection:
    • The LookML project must be configured so that the Allowed Connections field is set to the Only these connections option with at least one Google BigQuery connection selected. See the Accessing and editing project information documentation page for information on configuring a model and seeing the allowed connections for the model.
    • The LookML project must have a model file that specifies a BigQuery connection in its connection parameter.

In addition, each person who uses the Looker–Tableau BI Connector must have a Looker account with a user role that includes the explore permission on the LookML model that they want to access from Tableau.

Set up OAuth for the Looker–Tableau BI Connector

To use the Looker–Tableau BI Connector for Tableau Server, you need to set up OAuth integration on your Looker instance.

You can use the Looker API Explorer to set up OAuth integration for the Looker–Tableau BI Connector:

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

    https://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.

To use the API Explorer to set up OAuth integration on your Looker instance, follow 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 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:
    tableau-server
    • body:
    {
  "redirect_uri": TABLEAU_SERVER_INSTANCE_URL/auth/add_oauth_token,
  "display_name": "Looker-Tableau-Server (manual)",
  "description": "Client for Looker-Tableau Server integration (manually added)",
  "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 set up authentication 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 this value: tableau-server

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

Install the Looker–Tableau BI Connector on Tableau Server

To install Looker–Tableau BI Connector on Tableau Server, perform the following steps:

  1. Download the Tableau connector file by clicking the following link: looker_v1.0.0.taco
  2. Download the latest version of the avatica-<release_number>-looker.jar file from https://github.com/looker-open-source/calcite-avatica/releases.
  3. Install the TACO and JAR files on your Tableau Server host machine. The location for the files depends on the server's operating system. The default Tableau installation paths are shown in the following table:
TACO file location JAR file location
Linux server 
/opt/tableau/connectors

/opt/tableau/tableau_driver/jdbc
Windows server 
C:\Program Files\Tableau\Connectors

C:\Program Files\Tableau\Drivers

Complete the setup on Tableau Server

After you have set up OAuth for the Looker–Tableau BI Connector and installed the Looker–Tableau BI Connector, you can complete the setup by performing the following procedures on your Tableau Server host machine:

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 it has the same LookML limitations and SQL 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.
  • The Looker–Tableau BI Connector is designed to work with a live connection in Tableau. Tableau's data extract mode extracts Looker measures with a value of "null" and therefore won't produce accurate results. If you want to use extract mode, you can create aggregate fields in Tableau directly off the Looker dimension fields instead of using Looker measures.

Upgrading from the Looker–Tableau BI Connector Public Preview

If you were part of the Looker–Tableau BI Connector Public Preview, your existing setup will continue to work as-is. However, we recommend that you upgrade to the latest Looker–Tableau BI Connector version.

To upgrade to the latest Looker–Tableau BI Connector version, a Looker admin must perform the following tasks:

  1. Verify that the Looker instance meets the requirements.
  2. On the Looker instance, enable the Tableau Desktop toggle on the BI Connectors page.

After a Looker admin enables the Tableau Desktop toggle on the Looker instance, your Looker instance users can do the following to use the latest Looker–Tableau BI Connector:

After a user downloads and saves both the Tableau Connector file and the JDBC driver file, the user can connect to Looker data from Tableau Desktop. Users will need to authenticate into their Looker account in the upgraded Looker–Tableau BI Connector.

Once all your Looker instance users have upgraded to the new Looker–Tableau BI Connector, you can follow the procedure to remove the Tableau OAuth app that you added to your Looker instance as part of the setup for the Public Preview.

Removing the Tableau OAuth app (optional)

This procedure is not required. However, once all your Looker instance users have upgraded to the looker_v1.0.0.taco Tableau connector file, you can remove the Private Preview version of the Tableau OAuth app from your Looker instance by performing 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 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. For the Public Preview Looker–Tableau BI Connector version (v0.2.0), the client_guid value is:

      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.