Tableau Cloud Help

Metrics are a type of Tableau content that tracks the value of an aggregate measure, such as sum of sales. Because metrics refresh frequently and display their current value in an easy-to-glance format, they are useful for monitoring data. To learn more about how users work with metrics, see Create and Troubleshoot Metrics (Retired).

Ensure that users can create metrics

When metrics are enabled for a site, all users with a Creator or Explorer (can publish) site role can create metrics, if they have the correct permissions.

Metrics are created from existing views on a Tableau site. To ensure that users can create metrics on a view, verify that:

• Users have the Create/Refresh Metrics permission capability for the workbook that the view belongs to. For more information, see Permissions.
• The password for the data source is embedded, if it is required. For more information, see Edit Connections on Tableau Cloud.

Disable metrics for a site

Metrics are enabled on all sites by default. You can disable metrics on a per-site basis.

1. On the site where you want to disable metrics, from the navigation panel, click Settings.
2. Under Metrics Content Type, uncheck Enable metrics.
3. Click Save.

When you disable the metrics content type, metrics no longer appear on the site. The data for any existing metrics is retained, but these metrics will no longer refresh. If you re-enable metrics, these metrics will reappear and resume refreshing.

You can also disable metrics on a specific workbook by denying the Create/Refresh Metrics permission capability. For more information, see Permissions.

Manage metrics

Though metrics are created from a view, they are not tied to the view like alerts or subscriptions. This means you can manage metrics similar to how you manage workbooks, by renaming, moving, tagging, deleting, or setting permissions on a metric.

Find metrics to manage either by navigating the project hierarchy or via the following paths.

• To see all metrics on a site: Navigate to the Explore section, then select All Metrics.
• To see metrics created from all the views in a workbook: Navigate to the workbook, then select the Connected Metrics tab.
• To see metrics created from a single view: Open the view, then select Watch > Metrics from the toolbar.

Address failing and suspended metric refreshes

Metric refreshes may fail for one of the following reasons.

• The connected view was deleted or modified.
• Permissions changed for the connected view.
• The password for the data source is no longer embedded or is no longer valid.
• The metric owner doesn’t have the required site role to refresh the metric. A site role of Creator or Explorer (can publish) is required.
• There was a temporary connectivity issue, which will resolve itself.

Note: If the metric refresh is suspended because the owner doesn’t have the required site role for it to refresh, you won’t be able to resume the refresh unless you change the owner.

For more information on why metric refreshes fail and what users can do to fix them, see Fix failing refreshes.

Encourage users to overwrite a metric if the connected view was modified in a way that caused the refresh to fail, but the view is still available. Users can overwrite a metric by creating a metric with the same name in the same project as the existing metric.

Resume suspended refreshes

If the cause of the failure is fixed, for example by embedding the correct password for the data source, you can resume the metric refresh.

1. Locate the affected metric. Metrics with suspended refreshes display the text Refresh Suspended, instead of the time of last refresh, in grid and list view.
2. On the warning message, click Resume refresh.

Tableau attempts to perform the refresh. If this attempt succeeds, you’ll receive a confirmation, and the refresh will resume on schedule. If the attempt doesn’t succeed, the refresh remains suspended. You or the metric owner can delete or overwrite the metric, or keep it to reference historical data.

Monitor metric activity with administrative views