Create Reports from BigQuery Data in Looker Studio



Use CData Connect Cloud to gain access to live BigQuery data and create custom reports in Looker Studio.

Looker Studio, formerly known as Google Data Studio, empowers users to craft customized reports featuring data visualizations that can be shared with clients while reflecting your brand identity. When combined with CData Connect Cloud, you gain immediate cloud-to-cloud access to BigQuery data to create visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article provides step-by-step instructions on establishing a virtual database for BigQuery and generating reports from BigQuery data within Looker Studio.

CData Connect Cloud offers a seamless cloud-to-cloud interface tailored for BigQuery, making it straightforward to construct reports directly from live BigQuery data within Looker Studio without the need for data replication. As you create visualizations, Looker Studio generates queries to retrieve data. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect Cloud efficiently channels all supported query operations, including filters, JOINs, and more, directly to BigQuery. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly provide the requested BigQuery data.

About BigQuery Data Integration

CData simplifies access and integration of live Google BigQuery data. Our customers leverage CData connectivity to:

  • Simplify access to BigQuery with broad out-of-the-box support for authentication schemes, including OAuth, OAuth JWT, and GCP Instance.
  • Enhance data workflows with Bi-directional data access between BigQuery and other applications.
  • Perform key BigQuery actions like starting, retrieving, and canceling jobs; deleting tables; or insert job loads through SQL stored procedures.

Most CData customers are using Google BigQuery as their data warehouse and so use CData solutions to migrate business data from separate sources into BigQuery for comprehensive analytics. Other customers use our connectivity to analyze and report on their Google BigQuery data, with many customers using both solutions.

For more details on how CData enhances your Google BigQuery experience, check out our blog post: https://www.cdata.com/blog/what-is-bigquery


Getting Started


This article requires a CData Connect Cloud instance and the CData Connect Cloud Connector for Looker Studio. Get more information on the CData Connect Cloud and sign up for a free trial at https://www.cdata.com/cloud.


Configure BigQuery Connectivity for Looker Studio

Connectivity to BigQuery from Looker Studio is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with BigQuery data from Looker Studio, we start by creating and configuring a BigQuery connection.

  1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
  2. Select "BigQuery" from the Add Connection panel
  3. BigQuery uses OAuth to authenticate. Click "Sign in" to authenticate with BigQuery.
  4. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add BigQuery Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to BigQuery data from Looker Studio.

Visualize Live BigQuery Data from Looker Studio

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Cloud from Looker Studio to create a new BigQuery data source and build a simple visualization from the data.

  1. Log into Looker Studio, click data sources, create a new data source, and choose CData Connect Cloud Connector.
  2. Click Authorize and allow access to your Google account.
  3. Click Authorize to authenticate with your CData Connect Cloud instance
  4. In the CData Connect Cloud Connector in Looker Studio select a Connection (e.g. GoogleBigQuery1) and click Next
  5. Select a Table (e.g. Orders) or use a Custom Query and click Connect to continue
  6. If needed, modify columns, click Create Report, and add the data source to the report.
  7. Select a visualization style and add it to the report.
  8. Select Dimensions and Measures to customize your visualization.

Live Access to BigQuery Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live BigQuery data from your Looker Studio workbook. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating BigQuery data.

Try CData Connect Cloud and get real-time data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.

Ready to get started?

Learn more about CData Connect Cloud or sign up for free trial access:

Free Trial