Set a Data Quality Warning

Data quality warnings are a feature of Tableau Catalog. Starting in 2019.3, Tableau Catalog is available in the Data Management Add-on to Tableau Online and Tableau Server. When Tableau Catalog is enabled in your environment, you can set data quality warnings. For more information about Tableau Catalog, see "About Tableau Catalog" in the Tableau Server(Link opens in a new window) or Tableau Online(Link opens in a new window) Help.

You can set a warning message on a data asset so that users of that data are aware of issues. For example, you might want to let users know that the data hasn't been refreshed in two weeks or that a data source has been deprecated or that a table contains sensitive data. You can set one data quality warning per asset, such as a data source, flow, database, or table.

Who can see the data quality warning

When you set a warning, the warning is visible to users of the asset and any assets downstream from it. For example, a warning set on a table is visible to users looking at a dashboard with an upstream dependency on that table - users see a warning icon on the dashboard's Data Details tab and can open the pane to see the details. Warnings are visible elsewhere in Tableau as described in Set high visibility for a data quality warning. This applies to Tableau Server and Tableau Online users.

Tableau Desktop users see a warning icon (either a blue circle or a yellow triangle with an exclamation point) on the Data tab in a workbook sheet when a warning is set on a data source, table, or database used in the workbook. To see the details of the warning, hover over the warning icon with a mouse.

How to set a data quality warning

There are several types of data quality warnings you can set on an asset:

• Warning
• Deprecated
• Stale data
• Under maintenance
• Sensitive data

In addition to showing the type of data quality warning, you can include an optional message with more details about the warning.

To set a data quality warning:

1. Select the More actions menu (. . .) next to the asset you want to create a warning for, and select Quality Warning.
2. Select the Enable warning check box.
3. Select the Warning type from the drop-down list.
4. (Optional) Select the Enable high visibility check box.
5. (Optional) Enter a message to display to users.
6. Click Save.

Note that you can set a data quality warning and enable high visibility using REST API. For more information, see Add Data Quality Warning in the Tableau REST API Help.

Set high visibility for a data quality warning

There are times when you want to make sure that users of a visualization know important information about the data they're viewing, whether it be that the data is stale or that the source has been deprecated. You can do this by selecting the Enable high visibility check box in the Data Quality Warning dialog box, as described in step 4 of How to set a data quality warning.

When enabled, a notification appears when anyone opens a published view affected by this warning.

High visibility warnings are identified with a yellow warning symbol, which makes them more visible elsewhere in Tableau, as in these examples:

On the External Assets page:

On a database page:

On the Data Details pane:

On metrics. Warnings appear when you open a metric in Tableau Mobile, and in Tableau Server and Tableau Online when you hover over a metric in grid view and on the metric details page, as shown below:

You can change a high visibility warning to normal visibility by clearing the Enable high visibility check box in the Data Quality Warning dialog box.

Remove a data quality warning

When a warning no longer applies, you can remove it by navigating to the data asset with the warning.

1. Select the More actions menu (. . .) next to the data asset and select Quality Warning.
2. Clear the Enable warning check box to remove the warning.
3. Click Save.

Who can do this

To set a data quality warning, you must

• be a server or site administrator, or
• have the Save capability for the asset.