Connectivity with Bridge

Supported connectivity

Bridge supports the connectivity scenarios described below.

Supported connectors

Bridge supports a combination of connectors that Tableau Desktop and Tableau Cloud(Link opens in a new window) supports, unless listed under Unsupported connectors below.

Supported connection types

Bridge supports both connections types, extract and live.

• Extract connection: When data sources or virtual connections use extracts, to connect to private network data, Bridge can be used to perform scheduled refreshes of those extracts. Refreshes can be scheduled, in most cases, by the content owner as part of the publishing process. For additional requirements to support extracts, see Additional requirements for extract connections.

• Live connection: Bridge supports data sources or virtual connections with live connections to private network data using a feature called live queries. If the content owner publishes a data source or virtual connection that uses a live connection to data that Tableau Cloud detects that it can't reach directly, live queries are automatically used to keep the content fresh. For additional requirements to support live queries, see Additional requirements for live connections.

Supported data types

The type of data that Bridge can support falls into one of the following categories:

• Relational data

• File data, including Excel, text, and statistical (.sas7bdat) files.

• Private cloud data, including Amazon Redshift, Teradata, and Snowflake. For more information, see Use Bridge for Private Cloud Data.

• Some ODBC data

• Some web data connector (WDC) data if the data can be accessed by entering a standard user name and password.

• Data used in a multi-connection data source (i.e., data sources that contain a cross-database join), when all connectors are supported by Bridge. For more information, see Refreshing Cross-Database Joined Data Sources on Tableau Bridge(Link opens in a new window) in the Tableau Knowledge Base.

Limited connector support

Similar to Tableau, Bridge provides limited support for data sources that use the connector plugins, Web Data Connector, or a JDBC or ODBC driver to connect to data. For more information about the support provided, see the following topics in the Tableau Help:

• Web Data Connectors(Link opens in a new window)
• Other Databases (JDBC)(Link opens in a new window)
• Other Databases (ODBC)(Link opens in a new window)

If a Tableau Datasource Customization (TDC) file(Link opens in a new window) is used to customize your generic JDBC or ODBC connections, you can use the steps described in Use .tdc files for generic JDBC or ODBC connections to ensure those customizations are used by Bridge as well.

Unsupported connectivity

There are a few connectivity scenarios that Bridge does not support.

Unsupported connectors

• Microsoft Analysis Services
• Microsoft PowerPivot
• Oracle Essbase
• SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse
• Connectors (.taco) built with the Tableau Connector SDK(Link opens in a new window) and connectors available through Tableau Exchange(Link opens in a new window)

Unsupported connection types

• Live connections to file-based data
• Live connections to Google Cloud SQL, OData, Progress OpenEdge, and Tableau extracts
• All connections to cube-based data
• Snowflake when used with virtual connections

Using Bridge for OAuth enabled private cloud-based data sources

Tableau Bridge supports OAuth when connecting to private data that uses OAuth and public data that uses OAuth when it’s joined to private data. Bridge currently supports these connectors when using OAuth: Snowflake, Google BigQuery, Google Drive, Salesforce, and OneDrive. For most data sources, live connections and extracted data are supported.

Connecting to cloud data that Tableau Cloud can reach directly

For cloud data, setting up refresh schedules directly with Tableau Cloud is almost always a better choice. For a list of connectors supported by Tableau Cloud, see Allow Direct Connections to Data Hosted on a Cloud Platform.

Refreshing extracts of other cloud data

For some cloud data, you can sign in by providing a standard user name and password. For example, you might be able to connect to a MySQL database hosted on a cloud platform. In a scenario like this, you can set up a refresh schedule for extracts that connect to this type of data directly with Tableau Cloud. For more information, see Schedule Refreshes on Tableau Cloud.