Creators: Connect to Data on the Web
Before you can create a workbook and build a view on the web to analyse your data on the web, you must connect to your data. Tableau supports connecting to data sources on the web published through Tableau Desktop, or connecting to data directly through Tableau Cloud, Tableau Server or Tableau Public.
Starting in 2019.3, Tableau Catalog is available as part of the Data Management offering for Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud. When Tableau Catalog is enabled in your environment, in addition to navigating and connecting to data from Explore, you can navigate and connect to more types of data, like databases and tables, from Tableau Catalog For more information about Tableau Catalog, see "About Tableau Catalogue" in the Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud Help. Starting in 2021.4, Data Management includes virtual connections, a central access point to data. For more information, see "About Virtual Connections and Data Policies" in the Tableau Server(Link opens in a new window) or Tableau Cloud(Link opens in a new window) help.
Open the Connect to Data page
On the web, you use the Connect to Data page to access data to connect to. After you sign in to Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud, you can open this page two ways:
- Home > New > Workbook
- Explore > New > Workbook
If you’re on Tableau Public, you can open this page from your author profile:
- My Profile > Create a Viz
The Connect to Data dialog displays a scrollable list of mixed content that’s popular. If you have a Data Management licence, you can connect to data with a virtual connection, and if you have Data Management with Tableau Catalogue enabled, you can also connect to external assets, like databases, files and tables.
The responsive search field shows a list of suggestions that updates as you enter text. Filter search results by type of data, certification status or other filters that depend on the type of data selected. For example, some types of data may allow you to filter based on tags, connection type, data quality warnings or other criteria. Older versions of the dialog look and function slightly differently, but the overall function is similar.
On the Connect to Data page, the tabs you see depend on the product you have.
On Tableau Server, select from the following tabs to connect to data: On this site, Files and Connectors.
Connect to data On this site
- Select On this site to browse to or search for published data sources.
- Select the data source under Name and click the Connect button.
Note: In addition to connecting to data sources, when you have Data Management, you can use On this site to connect to data using a virtual connection. When Tableau Catalogue is enabled, you can also connect to databases, files and tables.
Connect to files
Tableau supports uploading Excel, text-based data sources (.xlsx, .csv, .tsv), and spatial file formats that only require one file (.kml, .geojson, .topojson, .json and Esri shapefiles and Esri File Geodatabases packaged in a .zip) directly in your browser. In the Files tab of the Connect to Data pane, connect to a file by dragging and dropping it into the field or clicking Upload from Computer. The maximum file size you can upload is 1 GB.
Use connectors
From the Connectors tab, you can connect to data housed in a cloud database or on a server in your enterprise. You must supply connection information for each data connection that you make. For example, for most data connections, you must supply a server name and your sign-in information.
Supported Connectors contains information on how to connect Tableau to each of these connector types to set up your data source. If the connector you need doesn't appear in the Connectors tab, you can connect to data through Tableau Desktop and publish your data source to Tableau Cloud or Tableau Server for web authoring. Learn more about how to Publish a Data Source in Tableau Desktop.
When Tableau successfully connects to your data, the Data Source page opens so that you can prepare the data for analysis and begin building your view. To learn more, see Creators: Prepare Data on the Web.
Tableau Server connectors
Actian Matrix* Alibaba AnalyticDB for MySQL‡ Alibaba Data Lake Analytics‡ Alibaba MaxCompute‡ Amazon Athena‡ Amazon Aurora for MySQL‡ Amazon EMR Hadoop Hive‡ Amazon Redshift‡ Apache Drill‡ Aster Database* Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2‡ Box‡ Cloudera Hadoop‡ Databricks‡ Datorama by Salesforce‡ Denodo‡ Dremio by Dremio‡ Dropbox‡ Esri Connector‡ Exasol‡ | Google BigQuery**‡ Google BigQuery JDBC**‡ Google Cloud SQL‡ Google Drive‡ Impala‡ Kognito* Kyvos‡ Hortonworks Hadoop Hive IBM BigInsights IBM DB2‡ IBM PDA (Netezza)* Kyvos‡ MariaDB‡ MarkLogic* Microsoft Azure SQL Database‡ Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics‡ Microsoft SQL Server‡ MonetDB* MongoDB BI Connector‡ MySQL‡ | OData‡ OneDrive‡ Oracle‡ Pivotal Greenplum Database‡ PostgreSQL‡ Progress OpenEdge* Presto‡ Qubole Presto‡ SAP HANA (for virtual connections only)‡ SAP Sybase ASE* SAP Sybase IQ* Salesforce‡ SharePoint Lists‡ SingleStore (formerly MemSQL)‡ Snowflake‡ Spark SQL‡ Teradata***‡ Vertica‡ |
*Not available on Linux servers.
**Google BigQuery needs OAuth when creating data sources from the web. Learn more about how server administrators can Set up OAuth for Google.(Link opens in a new window)
***Teradata web authoring currently doesn’t support query banding functionality. See Teradata for details.
‡Supports virtual connections if you have Data Management. See About Virtual Connections and Data Policies(Link opens in a new window) in the Tableau Server help for details.
Tableau Catalog Supported Connectors
Tableau Catalogue supports making a connection with a subset of the data connectors that Tableau Server supports. If a data source, database, file or table is greyed out, you can't connect from Tableau Server. You can, however, connect from the Tableau Desktop Connect pane, if you have the correct permissions.
On Tableau Cloud, select from the following tabs to connect to data: On this site, Files, Connectors and Dashboard Starters.
Connect to data On this site
- Select On this site to browse to or search for published data sources.
- Select the data source under Name and click the Connect button
Note: In addition to connecting to data sources, when you have Data Management, you can use On this site to connect to data using a virtual connection. When Tableau Catalogue is enabled, you can also connect to databases, files and tables.
Connect to files
Tableau supports uploading Excel or text-based data sources (.xlsx, .csv, .tsv) directly in your browser. In the Files tab of the Connect to Data pane, connect to an Excel or text file by dragging and dropping it into the field or clicking Upload from Computer. The maximum file size you can upload is 1 GB.
Use connectors
From the Connectors tab, you can connect to data housed in a cloud database or on a server in your enterprise. You must supply connection information for each data connection that you make. For example, for most data connections, you must supply a server name and your sign-in information.
Supported Connectors has information on how to connect Tableau to your data using connectors. If the connector you need doesn't appear in the Connectors tab, you can connect to data through Tableau Desktop and publish your data source to Tableau Cloud or Tableau Server for web authoring. Learn more about how to Publish a Data Source in Tableau Desktop.
Note: If you’re unable to connect to your data from Tableau Cloud, check to see if the database is publicly accessible. Tableau Cloud can only connect to data that's accessible from the public internet. If your data is behind a private network, you can connect using Tableau Bridge. To learn more, see Publishers: Use Tableau Bridge to Keep Tableau Cloud Data Fresh.
Tableau Cloud Connectors
Alibaba AnalyticsDB for MySQL‡ Alibaba Data Lake Analytics‡ Amazon Athena‡ Amazon Aurora for MySQL‡ Amazon EMR Hadoop Hive‡ Amazon Redshift‡ Apache Drill‡ Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2‡ Azure Synapse Analytics (SQL Server compatible) Box‡ Cloudera Hadoop‡ Databricks‡ Datorama by Salesforce‡ Denodo‡ Dremio by Dremio‡ | Dropbox*‡ Esri Connector‡ Exasol‡ Google BigQuery*‡ Google Cloud SQL (MySQL compatible)‡§ Google Drive‡ Hortonworks Hadoop Hive Impala‡ Kyvos‡ MariaDB‡ Microsoft Azure SQL Database‡ Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics‡ Microsoft SQL Server‡ MongoDB BI Connector‡ MySQL‡ | OData‡ OneDrive*‡ Oracle‡ Pivotal Greenplum Database‡ PostgreSQL‡ Presto‡ Qubole Presto‡ Salesforce‡ SAP HANA (for virtual connections only)‡ SharePoint Lists‡ SingleStore (formerly MemSQL)‡ Snowflake‡ Spark SQL‡ Teradata**‡ Vertica‡ |
*For more information about using OAuth 2.0 standard for Google BigQuery, OneDrive and Dropbox connections in Tableau Cloud, see OAuth Connections(Link opens in a new window).
**Teradata web authoring currently doesn’t support query banding functionality. See Teradata(Link opens in a new window) for details.
‡Supports virtual connections if you have Data Management. See About Virtual Connections and Data Policies(Link opens in a new window) in the Tableau Cloud help for details.
§Tableau Cloud doesn't support SSL using Google Cloud SQL.
Tableau Catalog Supported Connectors
Tableau Catalog supports making a connection with a subset of data connectors that Tableau Cloud supports. If a data source, database, file or table is greyed out, you can't connect from Tableau Cloud. You can, however, connect from the Tableau Desktop Connect pane, if you have the correct permissions.
Use Dashboard Starters
On Tableau Cloud, you can author and analyse data from LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Oracle Eloqua, Salesforce, ServiceNow ITSM and QuickBooks Online using Dashboard Starters. On the Dashboard Starter tab, from the list of pre-built designs, select an option and click Use Dashboard. See Dashboard Starters for Cloud-based Data Sources for details.
On Tableau Public, you can connect to data by uploading a supported file.
Connect to files
Tableau supports uploading Excel or text-based data sources (.xlsx, .csv, .tsv) directly in your browser. In the Files tab of the Connect to Data pane, connect to an Excel or text file by dragging and dropping it into the field or clicking Upload from Computer. The maximum file size you can upload is 1 GB.
If you don’t have a data set, check out the free sample data sets on the Tableau Public website.
Use connectors
From the Connectors tab, you can connect to data housed in a cloud database. You must supply connection information for each data connection that you make. For example, for most data connections, you must supply your sign-in information.
Supported Connectors has information on how to connect Tableau to your data using connectors. If the connector you need doesn't appear in the Connectors tab, you can connect to data through Tableau Desktop and create a data extract.
Note: If you’re unable to connect to your data from Tableau Public, check to see if the database is publicly accessible. Tableau Public can only connect to data that's accessible from the public internet.
Tableau Public Connectors
Google Drive OData |
After you connect
When Tableau connects to your data, the Data Source page opens so that you can prepare the data for analysis and begin building your view. To learn more, see Creators: Prepare Data on the Web.
Keep data fresh in web authoring
Update uploaded files in Tableau Cloud or Tableau Server: If you manually upload a file (Excel or text) for web authoring, Tableau can’t refresh the file automatically. To update your data, select “Edit Connection” to upload a new version of the file.
In Tableau Public, go to your viz and click Request Update. You can also keep your data fresh automatically by selecting “Keep this data in sync” in Tableau Desktop Public Edition.
Update file-based published data sources in Tableau Cloud: If you have a published data source in Tableau Cloud (published through Tableau Desktop) that uses file-based data, you can keep it fresh using Tableau Bridge. For more information, see Expand Data Freshness Options by Using Tableau Bridge.