Tableau Server is a web-based application that provides Tableau Desktop users with the ability to upload and store interactive dashboards and data sources within a centralized location. Once content has been published to Tableau Server, the owner has the ability to determine the individual users or groups who have access to it and to what extent. Content such as dashboards, worksheets, and stories can be easily shared by providing a hyperlink. This platform fosters and enhances collaboration, knowledge sharing, data exploration, and data communication.

This book has been written to benefit Tableau Server end users and content creators first and foremost. Learning how to navigate and leverage Tableau Server is the primary focus of this book. This book will help you to understand the tools that are used to drive the engagement and utilization of this amazing platform within your group or organization.

If you are reading this book, you might already be familiar with a Tableau product such as Tableau Desktop, Tableau Public, Tableau Prep, or one of the many other products the company offers. Conversely, you might have no experience with Tableau or any other data analytics or data visualization software at all and were just granted access. Whichever camp you fall into, this book can help you. Why? Well, this book is written for the majority of users: the people who create and publish content and the end users with whom this content is shared. It is not an expectation that the reader of this book is or plans to become a Tableau Server Administrator or possess the knowledge of a Tableau Zen Master.

This book is written for regular analysts and developers who just want to gain a better understanding of this product to increase their productivity, drive engagement, and increase the utilization of their data-driven products. The reasons for wanting to explore this topic can be multifaceted and varied: for self-growth, for the better dissemination of information, or to gain a competitive advantage. Whatever your goal with Tableau Server, this book will help.

Tableau Desktop is where data analysis and visualization take place. But then what? Next, you need to share this information with consumers. Historically, this has been done by sharing unsecured reports with static data in the form of a spreadsheet or slide. Tableau Server provides information to consumers via a more secure, interactive, and automatable process to accomplish a task.

There are several major benefits of Tableau Server, including the following:

• Automation: Instead of using a static report that needs to be updated every week, month, or quarter, you can connect to a report that has a live connection to your data or that updates at scheduled intervals selected by the creator of the report or Tableau Administrator.
• Customization: You can tweak an existing piece of content to your own specifications (for example, you can filter a report you use by default to only show a particular region when you log on) or edit a piece of content right on the server using the Web Edit feature.
• Data security: When your company hosts its own server, it allows itself to set up and alter the specifications based on the data privacy policies determined by your organization.
• Organization: You can have all of your data stored within a single location. This can help you to create a single source of truth for your data and reporting.
• Subscriptions: You can send an automated email to be delivered to selected users or groups who are interested in receiving a report. You even can schedule when the email is delivered so that it is sent after an extract refresh occurs to ensure email recipients are only being notified when a report contains the most recent data.

After completing this chapter, you should have a broader understanding of Tableau Server and how it relates to other Tableau products. You will also have a clear understanding of the different licenses, site roles, and permissions available and how they interact with one another. Let's begin by looking at Tableau's basic structure and where Tableau Server falls within it.

The Tableau platform has a multitude of products and features to choose from to help you and your organization best utilize data to make informed decisions. These products can be integrated for an optimal experience and are flexible enough to adapt to your organization's needs. Because each product can be customized and utilized in so many ways, no two Tableau Server environments are exactly the same. Every organization has its own practices regarding data collection, storage, management, and access. Likewise, every organization will deploy the use of Tableau products and services to fit their data needs and culture. No matter the differences, there are some basic processes that apply to all who use Tableau Desktop and Tableau Server. This process is illustrated in Figure 1.1:

Figure 1.1 – The process of developing and sharing analytic insights with Tableau

In this section, we will examine each of these steps and the application of their corresponding Tableau products. Let's begin by gaining an understanding of data sources.

Data sources

Before any analysis takes place, first, you must connect to your data. You can do this from Tableau Desktop by connecting directly to your database or by connecting to a published data source on Tableau Server. The various types of Tableau data connections include the following:

• Data extracts: These refer to a subset, or snapshot, of data that is stored in Tableau file format, that is, .hyper or .tde. (Note that you will only encounter a .tde file format if you use a version of Tableau Desktop prior to 10.5.) These files are optimized for performance within Tableau. Extracts can be embedded in a workbook when publishing to Tableau Server and can be scheduled to refresh on a regular basis so that the data stays up to date.
• Live connections: These allow you to query the database to update with real-time data. Every action performed in Tableau Desktop or Web Edit from Tableau Server initiates a query to the database.

  Tip

  While "real-time" data might sound ideal, in reality, your data source is rarely optimized to provide real-time performance. In fact, if the underlying data tables that you are connected to only update once a day, then real-time queries with a live connection from Tableau will not provide any new data until that initial data table has been updated. In this case, it would be best to use an extract. Likewise, if you have a slow live connection, you will benefit from creating an extract.

• Published data sources: These refer to a data source that has already been established using either a live connection or a data extract and then published to Tableau Server. Once on the server, a single published data source can be used by multiple workbooks to provide consistency, reliability, and efficiency.

You might find that the raw data available to you is not formatted in an optimal way nor is it clean enough to perform an accurate analysis. For example, there might be inconsistencies with the spelling or number formatting. When this occurs, your data should be cleaned before you begin your analysis using tools such as Tableau Prep or Alteryx. Once you have cleaned and prepared the data, you can establish a data connection in Tableau Desktop using one of the methods described earlier.

Tableau Desktop

Once you have established your data connection, you are ready to begin analyzing the data. This is where Tableau Desktop comes in. Tableau Desktop is a tool that allows users to explore and visualize their data for analysis, operational reporting, and more. Figure 1.2 shows the Tableau Desktop interface when it is connected to the included Sample – Superstore dataset that comes with Tableau:

Figure 1.2 – Tableau Desktop

Using this interface, analysts using Tableau can create reports and data visualizations, known as dashboards, to share with others. An example of a dashboard is shown in Figure 1.3:

Figure 1.3 – A dashboard created by Luther Flagstad

Throughout this book, there are examples of dashboards created by individuals within the Tableau community. These examples highlight some of the community initiatives and resources that are available to anyone wishing to develop their data analysis and visualization skills further. You can learn more about the Tableau community by visiting https://www.tableau.com/community. We will also discuss these resources in more detail in Chapter 10, Conclusion.

Tip

To find inspiration and discover what Tableau can do, you can visit https://public.tableau.com and browse the gallery to see the Viz of the Day. Additionally, you can use the search feature to search for "superstore." This will allow you to browse Tableau Public to view some of the amazing data visualizations created by individuals within the Tableau community using the Sample – Superstore dataset.

There are a few terms used within this book that are commonly used on the Tableau platform that you need to be familiar with. Some of these are as follows:

• Worksheet: This refers to a single page within Tableau Desktop where a visualization (such as a chart, graph, or table) is created.
• Dashboard: This refers to a collection of worksheets containing charts, graphs, or tables that are arranged in a single view.
• Story: This refers to a sequence of worksheets or dashboards that are arranged to explain an analysis or to tell an informative story.
• Workbook: This is a Tableau file containing worksheets, dashboards, and stories. Files can be saved as a .twb or .twbx:
  • .twb: This is the default Tableau Desktop file type. The data source will not be embedded (available to other users who are sent a copy of the file).
  • .twbx: This is a packaged workbook that has the data embedded within the file. This file type can easily be shared with others since they will be able to view and interact with the included data.
• View: This is normally used in a more general context as something that is viewed on the screen, such as a worksheet, dashboard, story, or metric.

Once your analysis is complete, these data creations can be shared with others within your organization using Tableau Server.

Tableau Server

As outlined in the previous section, Tableau Server provides a place to store and share data visualizations created in Tableau Desktop. It can be used as a communication tool to provide users with up-to-date information and alerts. There is also a feature known as Web Edit that allows you to make changes to the content on the server from your web browser. Your capabilities within the Web Edit feature will depend on your permissions.

You might encounter similar Tableau products that allow you to share data visualizations, such as Tableau Online and Tableau Public. Here is a quick overview of the Tableau products that enable you to publish and share your content:

• Tableau Server: This is a self-governed and self-hosted server that gives an organization full control and responsibility for managing its content and processes.
• Tableau Online: This provides the same functionality as Tableau Server but is fully hosted by Tableau for a hassle-free experience.
• Tableau Public: This is a free, public server that allows individuals within the Tableau community to practice and develop their data visualization skills and share that information with the world. Tableau Public can also be an excellent resource for non-profit organizations.

The purpose of this book is to examine the Tableau Server experience, but most of the principles learned here will also apply to Tableau Online. Tableau Public is a unique service that is simpler, free to use, and available to anyone. We will discuss how to connect and publish content to Tableau Server and Tableau Public in the next chapter, Chapter 2, How to Connect and Publish to Tableau Server.

Once content has been published to Tableau Server, it is ready to be shared with the end users.

End users

The end users are those users who use the data to make business decisions. This can include analysts, front-line management, business executives, and everyone in between. They require access to the insights provided by the data products. When a dashboard is created and published to Tableau Server, it is the end user who views the dashboard and determines what to do with the information and how it can impact the organization.

As an analyst, developer, or business partner, you can share content on Tableau Server with other users by sharing a URL or using the Share feature discussed in Chapter 8, Interacting with Views on Tableau Server. Throughout this book, you will learn how to best utilize Tableau Server in a way that optimizes your own efficiency and maximizes the value of your organization's server content for the business. End users can access the data through a web browser using their computer, tablet, or smartphone. Tableau Server is flexible enough to facilitate these needs and can be optimized for a variety of viewing methods.

So, you now have a basic understanding of the structure of the Tableau platform and how various content creators, and users interact with each component. The varying needs of these users will impact the way the server is used and managed. Understanding how other users interact with the server will help you to find ways to improve the end user experience and drive engagement with the content available on the server.

In the next section, we will review licenses, site roles, and permissions along with the impact they each have on the user experience.

To begin, what is a site on Tableau Server? Is it like a "website?" Nope. When it comes to Tableau, a site refers to a grouping of content and users that are blocked from other content and users using that same Tableau Server. Put simply, your company can have many sites on its Tableau Server, but you might only have access to a limited number of them. This is because Tableau Server has a multitenant software architecture. This just means that a single instance of software (Tableau Server) can support multiple tenants (sites) on a server. Ultimately, this means that the content you publish to one site is separated from the content on other sites within the same instance of Tableau Server.

Note

The content on Tableau Server is accessed, managed, and published at the site level. In addition to this, every site on Tableau Server receives its own web address (or URL).

In this brief section, you learned what a site is on Tableau Server. Having a solid understanding of what a site is will be useful in later sections of this chapter. Next, we'll get a broad overview of licenses, site roles, and permissions.