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This article provides information about sending data from any data source to a Google BigQuery database destination with Nexla.

1. Begin Sending a Nexset to Google BigQuery

Click the icon on the Nexset to be sent to the Google BigQuery database destination. This will open the Send Nexset to Destination screen.
Select from the destinations list, and click in the top right corner of the screen.
Select the appropriate credential, and click in the top right corner of the screen.

To learn how to enter a new Google BigQuery credential, see Section 2 in the Help Center article Connect to Google BigQuery.

2. Select the Google BigQuery Database Destination

With Nexla, data contained in Nexsets can be sent to an existing table in BigQuery, or users can create and send the data to a new table in a BigQuery database. To learn how to send data to an existing table, see Section 2.1. To learn how to create and send data to a new table, see Section 2.2.

2.1 Send Data to an Existing Table

Find the BigQuery database table to which Nexla should send the data. Expand databases and tables as necessary by clicking the icon next to each.
Select the table to which the data should be sent by hovering over it and clicking the button that appears to the right.

The button should now display , and the path of the selected location will be shown at the top of the list.

Click in the top right corner of the screen.

2.2 Create and Send Data to a New Table

Find the BigQuery database in which a new table should be created, and expand the database by clicking the icon next to it.
Click below the database in which a new table should be created.

To create and send the data to a new table, users must have permissions to create tables in the BigQuery database. If these permissions are removed after the data flow is created, all database updates associated with the flow will be stopped, and the user will receive a corresponding notification in Nexla.
Click in the top right corner of the screen.
Enter a name for the new table in the Table Name field.

3. Select Update and Tracking Options

Select whether the records contained in the Nexset should be inserted or upserted into the database using the Update Mode pulldown menu.

With the "Insert" update mode, the records contained in the Nexset will be pushed to the database destination and inserted as new columns.

With the "Upsert" update mode, records corresponding to existing columns in the database table will be updated, and records that do not correspond to existing columns will be inserted as new columns.
Optional: When insert mode is selected, to configure Nexla to automatically map the Nexset record attributes to columns in the database, check the box next to .
- When this option is selected, Nexla will display sample records from the Nexset that will be used for automatic mapping. The attribute names shown will be used as column names in the database.
  
  To change the table structure and column names, use the Nexset Designer to edit the Nexset to be sent to the database.
Optional: When upsert mode is selected, by default, Nexla is configured to allow table columns to be updated with Nexset records containing null values. To omit null record values from the upsert and allow records to be partially upserted, uncheck the box next to .
Optional: To enter a name for the tracker that will be used to trace the lineage of the Nexset in Nexla, check the box next to , and enter the desired tracker name in the text field that appears below.

4. Map the Nexset Attributes to Table Columns

Under the Column heading, Nexla will supply a column name from the selected BigQuery table for each attribute contained in the Nexset to be sent. These names can also be edited by clicking on a Column field and entering the desired text.
Optional: To create a new column in the selected BigQuery table, click at the bottom of the table formatting list, enter a column name under the Column heading, and proceed to the subsequent steps.
Optional: To delete a column, hover over the row containing that column, and click the icon that appears to the right.
Use the Linked Draft Attribute pulldown menus to map Nexset record attributes to columns in the BigQuery table.

In each row, the selected attribute will be mapped to the corresponding column.
Select the data type for each attribute using the Type pulldown menu.

For flows in which the data will be sent to an existing table, Nexla will provide a data type selection for each attribute. Users can choose to continue with these selections or specify different data types.
For upsert-type data flows, select a primary key by checking the box under Primary in the row that contains the primary key attribute.

For insert-type data flows, skip this step.
Optional: To specify a column as a partition column for table partitioning, check the box under Partitioning Column in the row corresponding to that column.
Optional: For clustered tables, check the box under Clustering Columns in the row corresponding to each column that should be used for clustering.

5. Complete and Activate the Data Flow

Once all of the above steps have been completed, click in the top right corner of the screen.
The confirmation screen indicates that the selected or created BigQuery database table has been successfully created as a data destination.
Optional: To edit the name of the newly created destination in this screen, click on it, and enter the desired text.
Optional: To enter a description of the newly created destination, click on , and enter the desired text.
- To activate the flow of data into the BigQuery destination now, click .
- To activate the flow of data into the BigQuery destination later, click in the top right corner of the screen.
  1. When the flow is ready to be activated, find the flow in the My Data Flows screen, and click on the destination.
  2. Click on the menu that appears to activate the flow of data to the BigQuery destination.