Tableau on BigQuery - Error connecting to nested data

1
votes

I'm trying to connect to google BigQuery table with nested fields. I'm using Tableau 10.1

I get the following error when I pull in the nested fields.

The Google BigQuery service was unable to compile the query. Unrecognized name: field.column_1

However, with Tableau 9.3, there's no such error. Can someone please suggest why this is happening on the newer Tableau version? and how to resolve it?

2
google-bigquerytableau-api
What does it mean "to pull in nested fields"? Are you running a query? – Elliott Brossard
I meant bringing the nested data fields into the rows or columns in tableau. – user1311888

2 Answers

2
votes

Changing the tableau datasource settings to use google-bql (legacy sql) resolved the issue. There are 2 ways to get this done.

Method 1: Edit the tableau file in a text editor and change the SQL connection dialect from google-sql to google-bql.

connection-dialect='google-bql'

This has to be done in every tableau workbook.

Method 2: Create a Tableau Datasource Customization (Example: BigQueryCustomization.tdc) with the following contents. 

<connection-customization class='bigquery' enabled='true' version='10.0' >
      <vendor name='bigquery' />
      <driver name='bigquery' />
      <customizations>
                  <customization name='connection-dialect' value='google-bql' />
      </customizations>
</connection-customization>

Place it inside the ..\Documents\My Tableau Repository\Datasources\ folder. This will enforce tableau to use legacy SQL to connect to bigquery. It’s not the exact tableau version number but the sql-connection-dialect setting that does the trick.

More info on the following link - https://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/examples_googlebigquery.html

0
votes

Issue: Tableau is unable to recognize the nested column name(parent.child1.

Solution: I solved it by creating a view in which I provided an alias name for each nested column(something like parent.child1 as parent_child1 and parent.child2 as parent_child2).

Then referenced the View in Tableau.