Tableau
Overview
Tableau is a widely-used BI platform for interactive data visualisation. It connects to BigQuery via a native connector, allowing you to build dashboards directly over the Decode GA4 events table in Tableau Desktop or Tableau Cloud.
Requirements
- Tableau Desktop or a Tableau Cloud account
- A Decode GA4 installation with the
eventstable accessible in BigQuery - A Google Cloud service account with BigQuery Data Viewer and BigQuery Job User roles, or OAuth via your Google account
Setup
1. Connect to BigQuery
In Tableau Desktop, open Connect → To a Server → Google BigQuery.
Sign in with your Google account (OAuth) or select Service Account and provide your service account JSON key file.
2. Select the events table
In the data source pane:
- Billing Project — your GCP project ID
- Project — your GCP project ID
- Dataset — the dataset you configured as
destination_dataset_idin your Decode GA4 installation - Table — drag
eventsonto the canvas
3. Build your dashboard
Key fields in the events table:
| Field | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
partition_date | Date | Use as your primary date dimension |
event_name | String | Filter to specific events |
event_param.page_location | String | Page URL |
Tableau will load the schema automatically. Use partition_date as a date filter to avoid scanning the full table on every query.
4. Publish to Tableau Cloud (optional)
To share your workbook, publish it to Tableau Cloud via Server → Publish Workbook. Embed your BigQuery credentials in the published data source, or configure an OAuth connection so viewers authenticate with their own Google accounts.