VizQL Data Service Introduction

Note: This is the developer preview release of the VizQL Data Service. This release is intended to offer developers early access to unreleased features.

🕐 2 min read

The VizQL Data Service provides a programmatic way for you to access your published data outside of a Tableau visualization. With a Viz, you perform operations like dragging a pill to rows or columns. This accomplishes two things. It fetches data from the data source, and it creates a visualization of that data.

With VizQL Data Service, you can fetch the data without any need for a visualization.

Note: The VizQL Data Service is still in its early stages and is subject to change. Some processes, like authentication, will be standardized in subsequent releases.

How does it work?

VizQL Data Service is a standard HTTP service, with an endpoint for a query-datasource method. A query is passed in as a JSON body that describes the query, and the return is passed back as either an array of JSON objects or an array of an array of values.

What tools do you need?

There are many ways to make API requests. You can create your own or use existing tools like cURL and Postman. We detail how to use Postman to construct a VizQL Data Service query against your favorite data source and send it to the VizQL Data Service endpoint.