Extending Tableau mapping with other technology
Next, we will consider how to extend Tableau’s mapping capabilities with other tools. Tableau’s developers were careful to create a mapping interface that is readily extensible. Some areas of this extensibility, such as connecting to a Web Map Service (WMS) server, are available directly from the interface; we’ll explore that next.
Using custom maps with a WMS
The easiest way to bring a custom map into Tableau is directly from Desktop. We need a properly formatted URL that points to a WMS server. Tableau Desktop can connect to any WMS server that supports the WMS 1.0.0, 1.1.0, or 1.1.1 standards.
A good place to find a list of such URLs is http://directory.spatineo.com, which provides information on a ton of different mapping services.
The following exercise was inspired by Jeffrey A. Shaffer’s article Building weather radar in Tableau in under 1 minute, which can be accessed here...