E017 – Tech Spec – Tableau 10.3 New Features

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In this episode we cover the new features in Tableau 10.3. This version debuted on May 31st, and a 10.3.1 update was released on 6/21/17.

  1. Data Driven Alerts
    1. Only on Tableau Server
    2. Receive an alert when a mark crosses a visual threshold
    3. Can use on any viz with a continuous numeric axis
    4. Can sign up yourself and others; then each person can self-administer
    5. Default check rate is 60 minutes or when an extract is refreshed. Can customize with this command:

tabadmin set dataAlerts.checkIntervalInMinutes

tabadmin restart

  1. Tableau Bridge – Limited Release
    1. Connect to live, on-premise data from Tableau Online
    2. Replaces the sync client – is basically the sync client + live query functionality. Client is installed and ran behind your firewall and pushes data to Tableau Online.
    3. Live connections must be enabled by administrators. Limited to RDBMSs (MySQL, SQL Server, etc.)
    4. Oracle cloud hosted DBs must use Tableau Bridge
    1. Must run as a service to enable live connections
    1. Must embed credentials in Tableau Bridge if you want it to automatically update on a schedule
    2. Will restart every hour minimum. You can set this window with this command:

tabonlinesyncclientcmd.exe SetDataSyncRestartInterval –restartInterval=<value in seconds>

  1. Best Practices (https://www.tableau.com/about/blog/2017/5/introducing-tableau-bridge-live-queries-premises-data-tableau-online-70767)
    1. Split bridges into two machines: one for extract refreshes and another for live queries, unless usage is extremely low
    2. Run the bridge continuously (ideally on a VM in a data center)
    3. Tune dashboards and queries to leverage extracts for summarized data
  1. Smart Table and Join Recommendations – Machine Learning will recommend tables and joins (even on non-similar names) based on previous usage metrics
  2. PDF Connector
    1. Connect to PDFs, identify tables, and pull data out
    2. Less copying/pasting/massaging of data to get it ready for Tableau
    3. Somewhat limited at this time, but continuing to be developed
  3. More Union support in more connectors
    1. DB2
    2. Hadoop
    3. Teradata
    4. Netezza
  4. New connectors
    1. Amazon Athena
    2. MongoDB BI
    3. OneDrive
    4. ServiceNow
    5. Dropbox
    6. JSON – scan entire file, not just a sample
  5. Automatic Query Caching – Tableau server can pre-cache queries in recent workbooks after an extract refresh to speed up performance on initial load.
  6. Miscellaneous
    1. More options in Web Authoring (drills, formats, changing displays)
    2. Story points navigator – more streamlined
    3. Mobile – Android improvements, banner to Tableau Mobile, universal linking that allows you to click and open in Tableau Mobile
    4. Tooltip selections – highlight data from tooltip links
    5. Latest date filter
    6. Distribute evenly
    7. Maps – French, Netherlands, Australian, and New Zealand updates
    8. Apply table calc filters to totals
    9. Custom subscriptions – days/hours, etc.
    10. APIs – various REST updates (tags on sources and views, switch sites, get sites list, etc.)

Music is Deep Sky Blue by Graphiqs Groove

Sources

  1. https://www.tableau.com/new-features/10.3
  2. https://www.tableau.com/about/blog/2017/4/save-time-data-driven-alerts-tableau-103-67888

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