Tableau is one of the popular BI tools that can use ClickHouse databases and tables as a data source. This requires a special JDBC driver to be downloaded and saved into a specific location where Tableau can find it.
1. What is Tableau?
Tableau is an integrated BI and analytics tool that allows people to quickly and easily create intuitive user interfaces for uncovering insights from data in the form of a visual manner, maybe a graph, report, etc. Tableau helps to create a narrative story of the data analysis with interactive visualizations that can be shared within the organization. Discover more about Tableau here
2. Connect ClickHouse to Tableau
Installation
1. Download and install Tableau desktop.
2. Download the latest version of the ANALYTIKA PLUS clickhouse-tableau-connector-jdbc TACO connector.
3. Store the TACO connector in the following folder (based on your OS):
MacOS: ~/Documents/My Tableau Repository/Connectors
Windows: C:\Users[Windows User]\Documents\My Tableau Repository\Connectors4. Follow clickhouse-tableau-connector-jdbc instructions to download the compatible version of ClickHouse JDBC driver.
5. Store the JDBC driver in the following folder (based on your OS, if the folder doesn't exist you can create it):
MacOS: ~/Library/Tableau/Drivers
Windows: C:\Program Files\Tableau\DriversConfigure a ClickHouse data source in Tableau
1. Start Tableau. If you already had it running, then restart it.
2. Click on More under the To a Server section from the left-side menu. If everything worked properly, you should see ClickHouse (JDBC) by ANALYTIKA PLUS in the list of installed connectors.
3. Click on ClickHouse (JDBC) by ANALYTIKA PLUS and a dialog window pops up. Enter the following details
4. Click the Sign In button and you should see a new Tableau workbook
5. Select TPCD from the Schema dropdown and you should see the list of tables in TPCD
3. Tableau as a BI Tool for ClickHouse
User-friendly: Tableau contains features for cleansing, organizing, and displaying data, making it simpler to build dashboards for interactive visual analytics with few complicated formulas.
Easily share dashboards: The dashboard can be distributed live on the stage from which the client gets to it. The results may also be presented in real time.
Multiple data source connections: The tool supports establishing connections with several data sources, enhancing the quality of data analysis and enabling an integrated, instructive dashboard.
Predictive analysis and forecast: Creating trend lines and forecasts is straightforward with Tableau’s powerful backend and dynamic front end.
Data blending: Data blending is used when we combine related data from multiple data sources, which you want to analyze together in a single view, and represent in the form of a graph.
Tableau Limitations
Less chart capacity: There are only 24 different types of charts available in Tableau. This number is still relatively small for a powerful tool compared to the tools on the market.
Limited data exploration: Tableau is not meant for native connections to large datasets, limiting the data that can be explored. You must have SQL knowledge to create complicated datasets from multiple data sources.
Static and single-value parameters: Tableau’s parameters are static, and a single value can be selected using a parameter. These parameters need to be manually updated each time the data is modified.
Not a robust ETL tool: Tableau’s strong suit is data visualization, not transformation and joining.
4. Build a visualization with Tableau
Now that we have a ClickHouse data source configured in Tableau, let's visualize the data.
1. Drag the CUSTOMER table onto the workbook. Notice the columns appear, but the data table is empty
2. Click the Update Now button, and 100 rows from CUSTOMER will populate the table.
3. Drag the ORDERS table into the workbook, then set Custkey as the relationship field between the two tables
4. You now have the ORDERS and LINEITEM tables associated with each other as your data source, so you can use this relationship to answer questions about the data. Select the Sheet 1 tab at the bottom of the workbook.
5. Suppose you want to know how many specific items were ordered each year. Drag Orderdate from ORDERS into the Columns section (the horizontal field), then drag Quantity from LINEITEM into the Rows. Tableau will generate the following line chart
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How Rocket.BI Can Help As A BI Tool For ClickHouse
Although Tableau is indeed helpful in many businesses with its various use cases, some drawbacks may affect how you use it for dashboards and reporting for business intelligence. This is when Rocket.BI cue to enter the picture.
Rocket.BI supports 36 charts to meet all user needs in data visualization. Users can efficiently perform drag-and-drop actions to create charts and fully customizable informative reports. Rocket.BI also offers a wide range of settings options with ease of use and flexibility, easy to change.
Since is natively integrated with ClickHouse, now you can easily perform BI for ClickHouse within some simple steps. Discover more here
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