Tableau Your Data: Fast and Easy Visual Analysis with Tableau Software

CONTENTS
Titlepage
Copyright
About the Author
About the Technical Editor
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Overview of the Book and Technology
How This Book Is Organized
Who Should Read This Book?
Tools You Will Need
What's on the Companion Website?
Summary
Part I: Desktop
Chapter 1: Creating Visual Analytics with Tableau Desktop
The Shortcomings of Traditional Information Analysis
The Business Case for Visual Analysis
Tableau’s Desktop Tools
Introducing the Tableau Desktop Workspace
Summary
Chapter 2: Connecting to Your Data
Chapter 3: Building Your First Visualization
Chapter 4: Creating Calculations to Enhance Data
What Is Aggregation?
What Are Calculated Fields and Table Calculations?
Chapter 5: Using Maps to Improve Insight
New Map Features
Creating a Standard Map View
Chapter 6: Developing an Ad Hoc Analysis Environment
Data Discovery as a Creative Process
Providing Self-Service Ad Hoc Analysis with Parameters

Chapter 7: Tips, Tricks, and Timesavers
Saving Time and Improving Formatting
Customizing Shapes, Colors, Fonts, and Images
Advanced Chart Types
Chapter 8: Bringing It All Together with Dashboards
How Dashboards Facilitate Analysis and Understanding
How Tableau Improves the Dashboard-Building Process
The Wrong Way to Build a Dashboard
2


The Right Way to Build a Dashboard
Building Your First Advanced Dashboard
Sharing Your Dashboard with Tableau Reader
Using the Tableau Performance Recorder to Improve Load Speed
Sharing Dashboards with Tableau Online or Tableau Server
Chapter 9: Designing for Mobile
The Physics of Mobile Consumption
Security Considerations for Mobile Consumption
Offline Access
Typical Mobile Usage Patterns
Design Best Practices for Mobile Consumption
A Tablet Dashboard Example
Mobile Authoring and Editing
A Note on Project Elastic
Chapter 10: Conveying Your Findings with Stories
Turning Analysis into Insight
Building a Story
Formatting Story Points
Sharing Your Story Point Deck

Part II: Server
Chapter 11: Installing Tableau Server
What’s New in Version 9?
Reasons to Deploy Tableau Server
Licensing Options for Tableau Server and Tableau Online
Determining Your Hardware and Software Needs
New Feature: Persistent Query Cache
Determining What Kind of Server License to Purchase
Tableau Server’s Architecture
Sizing the Server Hardware
Environmental Factors That Can Affect Performance
Configuring Tableau Server for the First Time
Security Options
Managing Ownership Through Hierarchy
Permissions
What Is the Data Server?
When and How to Deploy Server on Multiple Physical Boxes
Deploying Tableau Server in High Availability Environments
Leveraging Existing Security with Trusted Authentication
Deploying Tableau Server in Multi-National Environments
Tableau Server Performance Recorder
3


Performance-Tuning Tactics
Managing Tableau Server in the Cloud
Monitoring Activity on Tableau Server
Editing Server Settings and Monitoring Licensing
Partner Add-on Toolkits
Chapter 12: Managing Tableau Server

Managing Published Dashboards in Tableau Server
Navigating Tableau Server
Organizing Reports for Consumption
Options for Securing Reports
Improve Efficiency with the Data Server
Consuming Information in Tableau Server
Authoring and Editing Reports via Server
What Is Required to Author Reports on the Web?
Saving and Exporting via the Web-Tablet Environment
Sharing Connections, Data Models, and Data Extracts
Embedding Tableau Reports Securely on the Web
When Your Reports Are a Piece of a Larger SaaS Offering
Using Trusted Ticket Authentication as an Alternative Single Sign-on Method
Using Subscriptions to Deliver Reports via E-mail
Chapter 13: Automating Tableau Server
Tableau Server’s APIs
What Do tabcmd and tabadmin Do?
Automating Extracts with the Extract API
REST API
Part III: Case Studies
Chapter 14: Ensuring a Successful Tableau Deployment
Deploying Tableau—Lessons Learned
Effective Use of Consultants
The Tableau User Group at Cigna
Taking Care of Vizness
Part IV: Appendixes
Appendix A: Tableau’s Product Ecosystem
Tableau Desktop
Tableau Server
Tableau Online

Tableau Public
Tableau Reader
Tableau Mobile
Project Elastic
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Power Tools for Tableau
Appendix B: Supported Data Source Connections
Windows Connections
Mac OS X Connections
Appendix C: Keyboard Shortcuts
Appendix D: Recommended Hardware Configurations
Tableau Desktop for Windows: Professional and Personal Editions
Tableau Desktop for Mac OS X: Professional and Personal Editions
Virtual Environments
Tableau Server
Web Browsers
Hardware Guidelines
Tableau Server User Authentication and Security
Virtual Environments
Internationalization
Appendix E: Understanding Tableau Functions
Organization and Key for Appendix E
R Integration via Script Functions
Other Specialized Functions
Alphabetical Function List—Summary
Appendix F: Companion Website
Glossary
End-User License Agreement

List of Tables
Table 1-1
Table C-1
Table C-2
Table C-3
Table E-1
Table E-2
Table E-3

List of Illustrations
Figure 1-1
Figure 1-2
Figure 1-3
Figure 1-4
Figure 1-5
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Figure 1-6
Figure 1-7
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Figure 1-17
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Figure 2-26
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Figure 3-66
Figure 3-67

Figure 3-68
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Figure 4-32
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Figure 6-5
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Figure 7-24
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Figure 8-16
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Figure 8-56
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Figure 9-5
Figure 9-6
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Figure 10-2
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Figure 11-2

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Figure 12-5

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Figure 13-6
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Figure 13-12
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Figure 13-14
Figure E-1

17


Tableau Your Data!
Fast and Easy Visual Analysis with Tableau Software®
Second Edition
Daniel G. Murray

18


Copyright
Tableau Your Data! Fast and Easy Visual Analysis with Tableau Software®
Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
10475 Crosspoint Boulevard
Indianapolis, IN 46256
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
ISBN: 978-1-119-00119-5
ISBN: 978-1-119-00121-8 (ebk)
ISBN: 978-1-119-00120-1 (ebk)
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form
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work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a
particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The
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the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other
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19


Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without
written permission. Tableau Software is a registered trademark of Tableau Software, Inc. All other
trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with
any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

20


About the Author

Daniel G. Murray has over 30 years of professional experience. Dan has seen firsthand
the technical revolution in data that led to the creation of Tableau Software. Prior to
starting the InterWorks Tableau/BI practice in 2008, he held a variety of increasingly
responsible roles in finance, accounting, sales, and operations for a mid-sized global
manufacturing company serving the heavy industry and construction markets. During
the late 1990s, his employer acquired over 50 companies. Dan’s role in 2006 as the
CFO/CIO led to an assignment to integrate and create a global reporting environment.
Uninspired by the high cost and complicated products available from traditional vendors,
Dan discovered Tableau Software through data visualization expert Stephen Few. Less
than one month after downloading a trial license of Tableau Software, Dan and his team
were able to successfully create a reporting platform for less than 15 percent of the cost
and one-tenth the time that traditional vendors had quoted. At this point, it was apparent
that everyone needed Tableau—they just didn’t know it yet.
Within months after speaking at Tableau’s first customer conference, Dan went to friend
and founder of InterWorks, Inc., Behfar Jahanshahi, to convince him to allow Dan to
form a boutique consulting team focusing on providing the best practices of data
visualization and reporting using Tableau Software and any emerging or popular
database. Since the publication of the first edition of Tableau Your Data! Dan has visited
50 cities across North America and Europe presenting over 70 speeches on data and data
visualization.
InterWorks, Inc. is now the premier Gold Professional Consulting Partner for Tableau
Software with clients all over the world and over 35 Tableau consultants providing data
visualization, database, and hardware expertise to many of the most significant
organizations—spanning business, education, and government.
Dan is a 1982 graduate of Purdue University’s Krannert School of Business. He and his
family live in the metro Atlanta area.

21

About the Technical Editor
Dick Holm is a successful, longtime entrepreneur with expertise in data analysis,
statistics, and product positioning and presentation. Dick has been interested in the
graphical presentation of information since the age of four when he learned to write his
name in the Minnesota snow. He founded his own business based on presenting visual
process information to machine operators. It eventually became a $10 million company.
He now spends several hours a day with Tableau Desktop on his screen and a smile on his
face.

22


Acknowledgments
When I first approached this edition, I mistakenly thought that writing an updated
edition would be easier than writing the original book. I’ve discovered that writing a
guidebook for Tableau is never going to be easy. Tableau’s product evolution has been
consistently aggressive. During the last two years, Tableau added a slew of new features
to Desktop and Server. Consequently, nearly every figure in this book has been updated,
and there are over 200 pages of totally new content.
During the last two years, I received lots of feedback from readers of the first edition.
That feedback was universally positive and helpful. One individual went out of his way to
document improvement ideas by sending me multiple pages of detailed feedback. Dick
Holm’s feedback was so good I asked him if he would be willing to provide technical
editing on this edition. Dick agreed, and his feedback informed every chapter of Part I. I
don’t want to fail to mention Molly Monsey of Tableau Software. Molly’s contribution to
the first edition of the book was extensive and invaluable.
This challenging project would have been impossible without the help and support of the
InterWorks team. James Wright provided an excellent first draft of Chapter 9,
“Designing for Mobile.” Kate Treadwell drafted the new Chapter 10 on Story Points. Our
resident server wizard, Brad Fair, updated the initial draft for Chapter 11, “Installing

Tableau Server.” Mat Hughes updated the initial draft of Chapter 12, “Managing Tableau
Server.” Eric Shairla, Javod Khalaj, and Greg Nelms provided the first draft of Chapter
13, “Automating Tableau Server,” which included new code samples for illustrating some
of the new capabilities of Tableau’s expanding API toolsets.
InterWorks has many wonderful clients, but I would specifically like to thank Donna
Costello of Cigna Healthcare for inviting me to speak at one of her Tableau User Group
meetings and providing a case study from Cigna’s internal user group. As Tableau’s first
successful partner, we’ve learned a lot about how to effectively deploy Tableau.
InterWorks East Coast Team Leader James Wright recaps key success factors in his case
study that shares lessons learned.
After writing the first edition of this book I had the honor of speaking at over 50 Tableau
User Groups all over North America and Europe—meeting hundreds of Tableau users.
Their enthusiasm reminds me of how I felt about Tableau Software when I first
discovered it in 2007. One of the best things about Tableau Software is the community of
people who use the product. Your Tableau Public posts and generosity inspire me. The
Tableau Zen Masters are a great example of this sharing. I want to thank all of them for
the insights they have shared with the community.
This book wouldn’t have been possible without the faith and support of InterWorks CEO
Behfar Jahanshahi. Behfar believed in a big idea with a little following in 2007. His
strategic and tactical leadership continues to shape our success. His wisdom, insight, and
kindness continue to inspire me.

23


Introduction: Overview of the Book and Technology
This book aims to provide an introduction to Tableau in the context of the needs of
enterprises—large and small. With every Tableau deployment, there are several user
constituencies—report designers who are responsible for performing analysis and
creating reports, information technology team members who are responsible for

managing Tableau Server and maintaining good data governance, and the information
consumers who use the output and may want to do their own report creation.
This book's goal is to provide each group with a basic introduction to Tableau's Desktop
and Server environments while also providing best practice recommendations that
encompass novice, intermediate, and advanced use of the software.

How This Book Is Organized
There are four distinct sections. Part I (Chapters 1–10) covers the basics of Tableau
Desktop and then progresses to more advanced topics including best practices for
building dashboards to ensure they are understandable to end users, load quickly, and
are responsive to query requests made by your audience. A lot of new and updated
content had to be created in Chapters 1–5 because of interface enhancements and added
capability in the tool. Chapter 6 includes expanded content related to data discovery and
editing content on Tableau Server. Chapter 7 includes new tips and tricks that relate to
V9+. Chapter 8's detailed dashboard example has been edited to include an additional
action to create a floating and disappearing chart. Tablet computers have become
ubiquitous and Tableau has added more capability in its web/mobile platform, so this
edition includes a new Chapter 9 on mobile design and consumption with additional
content. Chapter 10 on Story Points is also a completely new chapter.
Part II (Chapters 11–13) focuses on Tableau Server, mostly from the perspective of a
technology manager responsible for installing, securing, and maintaining the Tableau
Server environment. Tableau Server Version 9 is one of the most significant upgrades to
Tableau Server ever. Not only has the user interface been redesigned and improved, but
the backend processes have been enhanced, and Tableau's API toolset has been
expanded. Consequently, every chapter in Part II contains significant content updates
and additions.
Part III (Chapter 14) includes a new case study that provides tips for ensuring successful
Tableau deployments. Cigna Healthcare created an internal user group aimed at
improving employee skills and building enthusiasm around their Tableau deployment.
Part IV (Appendixes A–G) provides additional details on Tableau Software's current

product ecosystem, supported data connections, keyboard shortcuts for Windows and the
Mac, and recommended hardware configurations, and also includes a detailed Tableau
function reference that provides explanations for function syntax and code samples.
Some of these sections were included in the chapter content in the first edition. Due to
their dynamic nature of the material, it made sense to break them out into separate
appendixes so that we could include the most up-to-date information as close to
publication as possible.
It's a challenge writing a book on this product line. Tableau Software's research and
24


development spending reached an all-time high last year, and Tableau’s management
team remains committed to 12–15 month major release cycles. There isn't a lot of time to
update a guide that is 600+ pages.

Who Should Read This Book?
This book is intended to introduce new users to the features that Tableau Desktop has to
offer from the perspective of someone who needs to create new analysis or reporting. It is
also intended for staff responsible for installing, deploying, and maintaining Tableau
Server.
The chapters related to Tableau Server are more technical because the subject matter
assumes that you have a grasp of server terminology and security.
You can read the book sequentially from start to finish. Or, you can skip around and read
about a topic of particular interest. Each chapter builds on the previous material, but if
you've already mastered the basics of connecting and using the Desktop, you can skip any
chapter related to Tableau Desktop and focus on topics of interest. Care has been taken to
cross-reference related topics. So if you are the type of reader who wants to skip to a
particular topic, breadcrumbs have been dropped so you can efficiently find related
topics.

Tools You Will Need
You can read the book without having Tableau Software installed on your computer, but
you'll get a lot more from the material if you follow the examples yourself. Tableau
provides free trials of the software. Alternatively, you can download Tableau Public for
free, indefinitely—all of the book examples related to Tableau Desktop should work on
Tableau Public.

What's on the Companion Website?
Tableau constantly updates the Desktop and Server products with multiple maintenance
releases and at least one major product release every 12 to 15 months. The book's
companion website includes articles related to the releases, sample files related to the
book's examples, and also examples related to new capabilities added to the product as
Tableau makes them available. The InterWorks team actively tests new Tableau
products, so the companion website may also include demonstrations of new
visualization types or techniques before they become available publicly.
Wiley also has a website dedicated
www.wiley.com/go/tableauyourdata2e.

to

the

book

that

you

can

find

at

Summary
Tableau lowers the technical bar for accessing data from many different data sources.
This book should allow you to advance your technical ability and save time deploying
Tableau in your enterprise by enabling you to make better decisions earlier in your
deployment.

25