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Tableau Connector Reference

Use Tableau as a data target. For example, you can push Salesforce data to an existing Tableau hyper file. Some details of how to work with data in a flow are specific to the data target.

Tableau Requirements for Composer

  • You can connect to Tableau Online or Tableau Server.

  • Your instance of Tableau must be publicly internet-facing and be version 2019.4 or higher.

Connections

To connect to a system, whether it is a source of data or the target where you are sending data, you must create a connection with that system’s required credentials. You typically connect to different systems within a flow and can reuse each connection every time you need to connect.

This system requires the following credential information for its connections:

Connection Name

Enter a connection name that will help you remember the details of this connection. You can reuse connections multiple times in a single flow, and in more than one flow, and the credentials are hidden after you create the connection. Therefore, it’s helpful to provide a name that easily identifies this connection from others.

Only you can see the connection. Other users in your Composer app must create their own connections.

Tableau server URI

The URI is the domain where you usually log in, for example, \https://[region].online.tableau.com

Token name

The personal access token that you created in the Tableau Account Settings page

Token secret

The secret corresponding to your Token name

Site

The site attribute, also called a Site ID

This is the first portion of the URL that appears after /site in the browser URL bar after you log in. If you are connecting to Tableau Online, you must supply the site attribute.

For example, if you see https://10ay.online.tableau.com/#/site/MarketingTeam/workbooks in your browser URL, the Site value is MarketingTeam.

For more information about authentication in Tableau, see the Tableau documentation.

Limitations

Only one flow can append to the same Tableau data source. If more than one flow or app outside of Composer accesses the data source at the approximate same time, a Composer error will occur.

Duration of Tokens

Tableau has limits on personal access tokens that affect your connection:

  • Any token not used in 15 days is revoked. If you fail to exercise a connection in 15 days, you’ll need to create a new token.

  • All personal access tokens are revoked after one year. You can add an expression to account for this.

Triggers

You must use a scheduler or other connector for a flow that includes Tableau. Event triggers are not available.

Actions

After you connect to a system and define the trigger or configure a scheduler, you define the actions that the flow performs, such as copying a record from Workday to Salesforce. The actions you can perform depend on which system you are connected to.

This system provides the following actions:

Add Data to Data Source

Add new data to an existing Tableau data source.

  • You must specify two pieces of information for each data source: the Tableau project ID and data source ID, which you can retrieve from the URL of the open project and data source, respectively. Once entered, Composer displays the project name and data source name instead of the IDs.

  • The data source you use must be published and must connect live to a hyper file.

    You can create a hyper file using Tableau Desktop (Connect To a File → hyper-file name) or by publishing a .hyper file via the REST API or tabcmd. You can’t access a live data source such as a CSV or Excel file, nor can you access data sources that are refreshed on a recurring basis per a schedule defined in Tableau.

  • The time it takes for changes made by the flow to show up in Tableau servers depends on the size of the hyper file.

If the data source that you are populating has a Time field but does not include a date, then Tableau stores the date value in the data source as 30/12/1899.

See Also