Tableau – Working with cubes

This post is the first of a series on designing and working with Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) cubes in Tableau.

A little background

Tableau works great with a long list of data sources; both traditional databases, OLAP databases, file-based data sources like CSV and Excel, cloud data sources like Google Analytics, Google BigQuery, Amazon Redshift, SalesForce.com and a wide variety of Hadoop-like databases.

Most parts of Tableau work the same on all the different data sources. You get the same intuitive user interface there makes it easy for end-users to create great-looking dashboards and analyses. You have map powerful functionality out-of-the-box. There are too many great things about Tableau to list them all – so look at their website for more info on functionality and the great look-and-feel: www.tableausoftware.com

However, there are some differences between the different data sources. Especially when working with cubes we see some end-user frustration because they don’t have the same flexibility as when working the relational data or extracts.

That is the reason for this series – to explore Tableau in the context of an Analysis Services cube.

But first all the important documentation from Tableau on working with cubes. There are not that much info and a lot is learning by doing.

Tableau documentation on working with cubes

• Getting Started with cubes video: on Connecting to Cubes, Functional Differences between Cubes and Relational, Creating Groups with MDX, Hierarchical Quick Filter. http://www.tableausoftware.com/learn/tutorials/on-demand/cubes#video
• Understanding Functional Differences between OLAP and Relational Data Source Connections: This is required reading for all who are using Tableau on top of an OLAP cube as it highlights the differences between OLAP and relational data sources and shows workaround for some of the differences. http://kb.tableausoftware.com/articles/knowledgebase/functional-differences-olap-relational

Any questions?
Please reach out to info@inspari.dk or +45 70 24 56 55 if you have any questions. We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Read the two follow-ups in this series of blog posts:
Tableau - Designing and working with cubes in Tableau
Tableau - Making the Date dimension ready for Tableau