How to publish and share Google Sheets Data dashboards with Tableau Server

Integrate connectivity to Google Sheets data into your enterprise reporting capabilities. The CData ODBC Driver for Google Sheets enables you to access live Google Sheets data in business intelligence tools like Tableau Server. Connectivity to Google Sheets APIs enables you to monitor changes to your data in real time. Other members of your organization can access your dashboards from a Web browser and get updates from their mobile phone.

This article walks through the process of configuring a DSN on the client and server machines, publishing a data source for Google Sheets to Tableau Server, and publishing an entire Workbook to Tableau Server (including the data source). If you publish a data source, you will be able to create new, refreshable workbooks in Tableau Server.

Connect to Google Sheets as an ODBC Data Source

To create a data source or workbook in Tableau Desktop and publish the data source or workbook to Tableau server, you will need to configure a DSN on each machine (Desktop and Server), specifying connection properties and creating DSNs using the same name on each machine. Information for connecting to Google Sheets follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments.

You can connect to a spreadsheet by providing authentication to Google and then setting the Spreadsheet connection property to the name or feed link of the spreadsheet. If you want to view a list of information about the spreadsheets in your Google Drive, execute a query to the Spreadsheets view after you authenticate.

ClientLogin (username/password authentication) has been officially deprecated since April 20, 2012 and is now no longer available. Instead, use the OAuth 2.0 authentication standard. To access Google APIs on behalf on individual users, you can use the embedded credentials or you can register your own OAuth app.

OAuth also enables you to use a service account to connect on behalf of users in a Google Apps domain. To authenticate with a service account, you will need to register an application to obtain the OAuth JWT values.

See the Getting Started chapter in the help documentation to connect to Google Sheets from different types of accounts: Google accounts, Google Apps accounts, and accounts using two-step verification.

When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

Windows

If you are installing the CData ODBC Driver for Google Sheets on Windows, DSN configuration is the last step of the driver installation. If you already have the driver installed, or you wish to configure new DSNs, you can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator.

Linux

If you are installing the CData ODBC Driver for Google Sheets in a Linux environment, the driver installation predefines a system DSN. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties.

/etc/odbc.ini

For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).

Publish the Google Sheets Data Source to Tableau Server

With the connections to Google Sheets data configured, you are ready to publish a Google Sheets data source on Tableau, ready to be leveraged by users in your organization to create workbooks based on Google Sheets data.

Create and Publish a Data Source

1. In the Connect pane, click More -> Other Databases (ODBC). Select CData GoogleSheets Sys, the system DSN.

   The driver installation automatically creates matching user and system DSNs: The system DSN is needed to connect from Tableau Server.

2. In the Database menu, select CData.
3. In the Table box, enter a table name or click New Custom SQL to enter an SQL query.
4. Drag the table onto the join area.
5. From the Server menu, click Publish Data Source -> (YOUR DATA SOURCE).
6. Enter the URL to the server. For most instances, you will authenticate with the Tableau Server username and password. Other authentication scenarios can be found below:
   • If Tableau is configured to use Kerberos and your computer has valid Active Directory credentials, Tableau connects to the server.
   • If Tableau is configured to use SAML, a login prompt for your external identity provider is displayed.
   • If Tableau is configured to use Active Directory, enter your Windows username and password.
7. In the resulting dialog, set the Project, Data Source, and other properties. If you want to schedule refreshes, select Embedded Password in the Authentication menu. Click Publish.

You and other users in your organization can now create and share workbooks based on the published data source.

Refresh Workbooks

With a system DSN configured on the client (Tableau Desktop) machine and server (Tableau Server) machine, you can refresh workbooks connected to the Google Sheets data source. From the Web interface for Tableau Sever, click Data -> (YOUR DATA SOURCE) -> Refresh.

Publish a Completed Workbook with Google Sheets Data to Tableau Server

If you have a specific Workbook that you wish to share with your organization, you can create the Workbook on Tableau Desktop and publish the Workbook directly to Tableau Server.

1. To connect to Google Sheets and select data, follow steps 1-5 above.
2. Click Server -> Sign in and configure the connection to the server. For most instances, you will authenticate with the Tableau Server username and password. Other authentication scenarios can be found below:
   • If Tableau is configured to use Kerberos and your computer has valid Active Directory credentials, Tableau connects to the server.
   • If Tableau is configured to use SAML, a login prompt for your external identity provider is displayed.
   • If Tableau is configured to use Active Directory, enter your Windows username and password.
3. With the data selected, select dimensions and measures to visualize and select a type of chart or graph to build your visualization(s).
4. Once the Workbook is complete, click Server -> Publish Workbook to publish the Workbook to Tableau Server.
5. In the resulting dialog, set the Project, Name, Description and other properties. If you want to schedule refreshes, click Edit under Data Sources and change the Authentication option to Embedded Password. Click Publish.

You and other users in your organization can now review the published workbook from Tableau Server.