Hi everyone, what is the purpose of the output stage? Do I need an output stage if I am using BigQuery as my data warehouse? Is the output stage a table that lives in my data warehouse, with my source data table? If so, why do we need both?

Hi Daniel. Generally speaking, the Output Stage needs to be created above the source database in order to match it with your Logical Data Model (LDM). Only if Output Stage is correctly associated with LDM, it can correctly distribute and populate correct data into datasets within your LDM. In case of BigQuery (BQ) - You will have to create a dataset in it and within that dataset, you will need to create the output stage table. For more information. please check our documentation describing BQ integration details: https://help.gooddata.com/doc/enterprise/en/data-integration/data-preparation-and-dis[…]bject-storage-services/gooddata-bigquery-integration-details

Hi @Daniel, output stage is one of two ways of mapping the data in your data warehouse to the logical data model in your workspace. It is a set of tables or views in your data warehouse that follow specific naming convention defined by GoodData. The naming convention tells the platform which columns from your data warehouse should be loaded into which columns in the workspace. The other option is to fill out an explicit mapping in the data modeler where you map each field from the workspace to the respective field in your data warehouse. When you use explicit mapping, output stage is not needed. If you're interested in learning more this course shows how the mapping works https://university.gooddata.com/loading-data-from-data-warehouses .

Thank you both! I believe I am understanding now