Tableau Cloud Help

Provision users and groups with Azure Active Directory

Site administrators can now automate user management, provision groups, and assign Tableau Cloud site roles through Azure Active Directory. For more information, see Configure SCIM with Microsoft Entra ID.

Authorize access to Tableau REST API using Tableau connected apps

Using connected apps, you can programmatically authorize access to the REST API on users’ behalf using JSON web tokens (JWTs).

For more information, see Access Scopes for Connected Apps.

Enable Explain Data by default per site

Site admins can enable Explain Data by default using site settings and the Explain Data permission. Authors no longer need to set the workbook option Allow Explain Data to be used in this workbook when viewed online in the Explain Data Settings dialog box (the workbook setting has been removed). Access to Explain Data in viewing mode is based on site setting, site role, and the Explain Data permission.

For more information, see Control Access to Explain Data.

Tableau Catalog - part of Data Management

Ask Data Lenses appear in lineage - The lineage pane now contains lens information. For more information, see Use Lineage for Impact Analysis.

Virtual connections - part of Data Management

Virtual connections support revision history - Revision history lets you view the changes to the connection, delete a revision, or restore the connection to a previous version.

Enhanced filter features for data policy testing - In the virtual connection editor, when you preview the data with your data policy applied, you can now see the values that are allowed by the policy and the values that are filtered out.

Tableau Bridge support for OAuth

Tableau Bridge now supports OAuth as an authentication method for connections to: Snowflake, Google BigQuery, Google Drive, Salesforce, and OneDrive. Using OAuth provides better security than basic username and password authentication and is easier to manage. For more information, see Publish OAuth enabled private cloud-based data sources.

Admin Insights Job Performance data source

Get more visibility into your site with Admin Insights. You can now connect to the Job Performance data source to see events and runtime information for background jobs on the site. Jobs include extracts refreshes, Bridge refreshes, and flow runs. For more information, see Use Admin Insights to Create Custom Views(Link opens in a new window).

IPv4 address support for Bridge pools

When mapping domains to Bridge pools, site admins can specify IPv4 addresses in the Private Network allowlist to refresh data sources and virtual connections that use IPv4 addresses in their connections. For more information, see IP addresses.

Accelerate load time for your view

Workbook owners, site administrators, and server administrators can now accelerate load time for their views. View Acceleration precomputes long-running queries, so accelerated workbooks load faster. For more information, see View Acceleration.

Customize the View Data window

In a worksheet, you can customize the tabular display of your data in the View Data window. Remove columns from the default view, change the column order, sort columns, or add columns to provide deeper context. You can then download the customized view of the underlying data as a CSV file to share with your team.

Note: When you customize the View Data window, the changes remain only while the View Data window is open.

The new View Data window and customization options are available in Tableau Cloud, Tableau Server, and Tableau Desktop. For more information, see View Underlying Data(Link opens in a new window).

The View Data window and its options are accessible for keyboard navigation and screen readers in Tableau Cloud, Tableau Server, and Tableau Desktop. For more information, see View Data Window(Link opens in a new window) in "Keyboard Accessibility for Tableau".

Open the Sheet Description for a workbook on the web

Sheet Description is now available in Tableau Cloud and Tableau Server. While editing a workbook on the web, in the Worksheet menu, select Sheet Description. Field descriptions are also available on the web. For more information, see Get Details About Fields and Sheets in a Workbook(Link opens in a new window).

Change to Search behavior in Tableau

Beginning with the 2022 Spring release, the Search functionality on the Search Results page in Tableau has changed. Prior to this release, content was indexed to allow “partial token matching.” This meant that you could search for a partial string. For example, if you searched for “super” the results could include content that contained the word “Superstore” in the title, description or columns, even if the word “super” was not present by itself.

As of Spring 2022, indexing is done in a new way that supports both “full token matching” and “fuzzy token matching.” This means that the results you see will be based on complete strings, and will not do partial matches. Fuzzy matching provides partial matching on complete strings. To find "Superstore", you need to search for “superstore” or some variation of that entire string, for example “supertor”, “sperstore”, or “superstores”. Searching on just “super” will not return that match. The goal and benefit of this approach is to reduce noise, limiting the results to content that more closely matches your search string.

Recommendations for taking advantage of this change:

• Use complete words in your query
• Search for words that are present in the title or description of the content

Quick Search

The behavior of Quick Search has not changed, so partial token matching is still supported, but this means that the results in Quick Search will likely not be the same as the results in the Search Results page.

Tableau Catalog - part of the Data Management Add-on

Certifications and data quality warnings for virtual connections - You can now certify and set data quality warnings on virtual connections.

Virtual connections appear in lineage - The lineage pane now contains both virtual connection and virtual connection table information. For more information, see Use Lineage for Impact Analysis.

Developer Resources

Virtual connections in the Metadata API - Virtual connections and virtual connection tables are now addressable using the Metadata API, and can appear in output when using it. For more information, see Understand the Metadata Model(Link opens in a new window) in the Tableau Metadata API Reference.

Virtual connections - part of the Data Management Add-on

Salesforce connector supports virtual connections - You can connect Tableau to your Salesforce data and create virtual connections and data policies that implement row-level security. See About Virtual Connections and Data Policies for details about virtual connections.

Virtual connections added to space usage view - Virtual connections are added as an Object Type in the Stats for Space Usage view so administrators can see how much disk space virtual connections use.

Set up OAuth for Salesforce CDP

As a Tableau Cloud site admin, you can set up OAuth for Salesforce CDP. For more information, see Connect Tableau Cloud Web Authoring to Salesforce Data Cloud.

Update Admin Insights data sources

As a Tableau Cloud site admin, you can now specify how often Admin Insights data sources are updated on your site. For more information, see Manage Admin Insights.

Tableau Cloud sign-in updates

For users added to multiple Tableau Cloud sites, the sign-in process will now prompt users to enter the site URI of the site they are attempting to access. For more information, see Sign In to Tableau Cloud.

Get view load times with Admin Insights

Get more visibility into your Tableau Cloud site with a new Admin Insights data source. You can now connect to Viz Load Times to see load time information for views published on your site. For more information, see Use Admin Insights to Create Custom Views.

Reset MFA verification methods

Site admins can now reset MFA for users who lose all their usual MFA verification methods and are locked out of the site. For more information, see Multi-Factor Authentication and Tableau Cloud.

Support for IdP-initiated SLO

In addition to supporting service provider (SP)-initiated single log out (SLO), Tableau Cloud supports identity provider (IdP)-initiated SLO. For more information about SAML configuration and requirements, see SAML Requirements for Tableau Cloud.

Edit published data sources

In Tableau Cloud, you can now edit published data sources. Previously, only data sources embedded in workbooks could be edited.

Whether you’re creating a new published data source or editing an existing published data source, you can create joins and edit the schema from the Data Source page. Then use the Scratchpad to test your changes, create folders, organize hierarchies, and rename fields and aliases before publishing your data source—all without ever leaving Tableau. For more information, see Edit a Published Data Source.

Embed metrics into webpages

Include metrics on the webpages and apps where they are relevant by embedding them. To embed a metric, copy the embed code provided on your Tableau site or write your own embed code. An embedded metric follows the same sign in and permission restrictions as the site the metric is embedded from on Tableau Cloud or Tableau Server, so your metric's data is secure. For more information, see Embed Metrics into Webpages.

Configure new comparisons and statuses for metrics

When you create a metric, you can now adjust the date range, configure the historical comparison, and set status indicators. The comparison and status you set are displayed on the metric card, giving users an easy to understand indicator of how the metric is performing compared to a prior point in time or a specific value you’ve defined. For more information see, Create and Troubleshoot Metrics (Retired).

Salesforce Admin Insights and Nonprofit Cloud

After connecting to Salesforce, you can now publish additional workbooks and data sources for Salesforce Admin Insights and Nonprofit Cloud. The content is customized for your organization and allows you to explore your Salesforce data in Tableau Cloud. For more information, see Create Workbooks with Salesforce Data.

Ensure JDBC or ODBC connection customizations are used by Bridge

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.

Monitor Bridge refreshes using JSON logs

Create data sources and views to monitor refresh jobs by connecting to a Bridge client’s JSON log files. For more information, see Configure the Bridge Client Pool.

Provide feedback to Ask Data lens authors

If you have questions about the structure of a lens or how best to use it with Ask Data, you can send feedback directly to the author.

1. To the left of the query box for Ask Data, click the "i" icon.

3. At the bottom of the tips dialog, click Contact the Lens Author.

This option is enabled by default, but lens authors can hide it by following the steps in Let users email you questions about a lens.

Use terms previously reserved for analytical functions in Ask Data

Previously, analytical terms found in data source field names and values were ignored by Ask Data. But now it treats terms like "average," "group," "filter," "limit," "sort," and "date" just like any other form of data, letting you analyze data sources without needing to revise their contents.

Access table calculations in Ask Data

If a published data source contains calculated fields with table calculations that aggregate or sort, Ask Data now indexes and analyzes those just like other fields. (Table calculations that filter or limit data are not supported.)

Use longer field values in Ask Data

Ask Data now indexes field values with lengths of up to 200,000 characters, far above the previous limit of 10,000.

Set up custom OAuth for Dremio

Beginning with version 2021.3, you can set up custom OAuth for Dremio. For more information, see OAuth Connections.

See color-coded data types and simplified phrasing for limiting and sorting in Ask Data

As you create queries in Ask Data, you'll see helpful color-coded icons that identify data types such as numbers, text strings, tables, and so on. Phrasing for limiting filters and sorting has been simplified too, making Ask Data's interpretations of your queries more clear.

Identify elements used in interpretations for Ask Data

Ask Data has added visual feedback on how your inputs are used in interpretations. Ignored words are grayed out; hovering over remaining words highlights how they're incorporated in the interpretation above.

Edit field descriptions for Ask Data lenses

Lens authors can now customize the description that appears when users hover over a field, better explaining its purpose to the audience of lens users. To change a Description entry, click the pencil icon to the right of a field name.

Tableau with MFA

As the security landscape evolves and threats that can compromise user credentials grow more common, it's important to implement strong security measures to protect your organization and users. If your organization doesn’t work directly with an single sign-on (SSO) identity provider (IdP), you can enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) with Tableau authentication to better secure your user sign-in process.

For more information, see one of the following:

• If you’re a site admin, see About multi-factor authentication and Tableau Cloud.
• If you’re a user, see Register for multi-factor authentication.

Streamlined site settings for Ask Data

Streamlined site settings for Ask Data now disable or enable the feature site-wide for all data sources. If it's enabled site-wide, indexing frequency remains customizable for each data source. For more information, see Disable or Enable Ask Data for a Site.

Organize items in a collection

Collections are like playlists that let users organize content in a way that is meaningful to them. Viewers, Explorers, and Creators can all create and share collections. For more information, see Organize Items in a Collection.

Note that if you participated in the limited preview for collections, the site setting to control public collections no longer exists. Now, permissions for collections are controlled the same way as other types of content. For more information, see Permissions for Collections.

Create workbooks with Salesforce data

You can now integrate Salesforce data into Tableau Cloud to create starter content for users on your site. Once you connect to Salesforce, Tableau publishes ready-to-use workbooks and data sources to help jumpstart analysis into your Sales and Service Clouds. For more information, see Create Workbooks with Salesforce Data.

Configure settings for extracts in web authoring

You can now configure settings for extracts that you create in Web Authoring. Optionally, configure options to tell Tableau how to store, define filters for, and limit the amount of data in your extract. For more information, see Create Extracts on the Web .

Bring Einstein Discovery predictions into your Prep flows on the web

Beginning with version 2021.2, you can bring prediction models built in Einstein Discovery directly into your Prep flows on the web.

Note: You must have a Salesforce license and user account that is configured to access Einstein Discovery to use this feature.

With the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence, you can bulk score your flow data and generate new fields for predicted outcomes at the row level, as well as add top predictors and recommended improvement fields to include data about which fields contributed to the predicted outcome. Add a Prediction step to your flow, sign into Einstein Discovery and choose from deployed models, and apply them to your flow data. Then generate your flow output and use the new data source to analyze the predicted outcomes in Tableau. This feature was first introduced in Tableau Prep Builder in version 2021.1.3. For more information, see Add Einstein Discovery Predictions to your flow(Link opens in a new window) in the Tableau Prep help and Create and Interact with Flows on the Web.

Multiple analytics extensions in a site

Beginning with version 2021.2, you can now create multiple analytics extensions connections for each site. This means that organizations with different language or connection requirements can use analytics extensions on the same Tableau Server site, with different workbooks using different connections. For more information on configuring analytics extensions for your site, see Configure Connections with Analytics Extensions. For details on using analytics extensions, see Pass Expressions with Analytics Extensions(Link opens in a new window) (Tableau Desktop and Web Authoring Help).

Note: As of 2021.2, Einstein Discovery analytics extensions are still limited to one per site.

Share explanations from Explain Data in published dashboards

Explain Data has a reimagined user interface optimized for a broader audience of business users. Authors (Creators or Explorers with editing permissions) can now enable Explain Data for viewers of dashboards and sheets in published workbooks. Viewers can select a mark of interest in the view and run Explain Data to explore their data more deeply than before.

Access to Explain Data in viewing mode is not enabled by default, so authors will need to enable this option. For information on how to enable Explain Data in viewing mode, see Control Access to Explain Data.

For more information on Explain Data, see Discover Insights Faster with Explain Data, Get Started with Explain Data, and Requirements and Considerations for Using Explain Data.

Configure custom OAuth

As a site admin, you can now configure custom OAuth clients for your site to override default OAuth clients. For more information, see Configure custom OAuth.

Keep more data fresh using Bridge

Bridge adds support for the following connectors:

• Alibaba AnalyticsDB for MySQL
• Alibaba Data Lake Analytics
• Databricks
• Denodo
• Impala
• Kyvos

For more information about Bridge connectivity, see Connectivity with Bridge.

Explore new Admin Insights data sources

Get more visibility into your Tableau Cloud site with new Admin Insights data sources. You can now connect to the Groups data source to identify the group membership of users or the Site Content data source for governance information about content items on your site. For more information, see Use Admin Insights to Create Custom Views.

Tableau Catalog - part of the Data Management Add-on

Add Field Descriptions - You can add descriptions for fields in a published data source that then display in the Description column on the data source page Lineage tab. You can also see the description on the Data tab when you build a visualization. For more information, see Describe fields in a published data source in the Tableau Desktop and Web Authoring Help.

Data Quality Warning Updates

• Formatted text support for warning messages - When you create or edit a data quality warning message, you can format the text with bold, underline, and italics, and include a link or an image. For more information, see Set a Data Quality Warning.
• Message required for warnings - When you create a data quality warning, you're now required to enter a message to display to users. (This doesn't apply to warnings generated when you set Tableau to monitor for extract refresh or flow failures.) For more information, see Set a Data Quality Warning.

Inherited descriptions appear in Tableau Desktop - When a description for a field exists upstream from the field, it now appears in Tableau Desktop with information about where the description is inherited from. For more information, see Describe fields in a published data source in the Tableau Desktop and Web Authoring Help.

Full table name appears - The table's full name has been added to the table page.

Filter by tags - You can now filter databases, files, and tables by tags in the Connect To dialog box.

Filter by embedded or non-embedded - On the External Assets page, you can filter databases, files, and tables by asset category: embedded or non-embedded.

Create parameter actions on the web

You can now create parameter actions in both Tableau Cloud and Tableau Server. When you create a parameter action, you customize how data is displayed in your viz. And users can change a parameter value by interacting directly with your viz. For more information, see Parameter Actions(Link opens in a new window).

Create set actions on the web

You can now create set actions in both Tableau Cloud and Tableau Server. Use sets to define a subset of data, and then use set actions to control how members in a set compare to other data in the view. For more information, see Set Actions(Link opens in a new window).

Salesforce Authentication

If your organization uses Salesforce, you can enable Tableau Cloud to use Salesforce accounts for single sign-on with OpenID Connect. When you enable Salesforce authentication, users are directed to the Salesforce sign-in page to enter their credentials, which are stored and managed in Salesforce. Minimal configuration may be required. See Salesforce Authentication.

Bridge (legacy) schedules have moved to a new location

For an extract data source that needs to use a Bridge (legacy) schedule to keep data fresh, you can find and configure a Bridge (legacy) schedule from its new location in the actions menu on the data source page. For more information, see Set Up a Bridge Refresh Schedule.

Note: Recommended schedules have not changed location and continue to be integrated with Online refresh schedules. However, Recommended schedules is no longer labeled as "Recommended" to better reflect the integration. All the Bridge-related updates described here have been made to support the new Online scheduling experience.

Custom Extract Refresh schedules

Extract refresh scheduling is now fully customizable and no longer need to be selected from an pre-populated list of schedules. You now have the ability to create and manage customized hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly schedules for the extract refreshes.

For more information, see Schedule Refreshes on Tableau Cloud.

Turn off Web Page objects

To prevent Web Page objects in dashboards from displaying target URLs, deselect Enable Web Page Objects in the site settings.

Set the Site Time Zone for Extracts

The default time zone for extract-based data sources in a site is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Site administrators can now choose to set a different time zone.

For more information, see Change Time Settings.

Automatically Suspend Extract Refreshes for Inactive Workbooks

To save resources, Tableau can automatically suspend extract refresh tasks for inactive workbooks. This feature applies to full extract refreshes only, not to incremental extract refreshes. This feature only applies to refresh schedules that run weekly or more often.

For more information, see Automatically Suspend Extract Refreshes for Inactive Workbooks and Data Sources.

Manage Licenses for User Groups with Grant Role on Sign In

Administrators can set a minimum site role for user groups and choose Grant role on sign in when creating or modifying that user group. Enabling Grant role on sign in reduces manual work to manage licenses, since administrators can designate site role capabilities by group, and provision licenses when a user actually needs it. By waiting to grant licenses until users sign in, administrators can streamline license provisioning, without granting licenses to inactive users. For more information, see Grant License on Sign In.

Tag Stale Content for Archiving

The Stale Content Admin view that was introduced in 2020.2, now has an added functionality that allows you to tag content as stale. You can then choose to archive the tagged content. For more information, see Stale Content.

Tableau Catalog updates - part of the Data Management Add-on

Tableau Catalog is included in the separately licensed Data Management Add-on for Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud. For more information about Tableau Catalog, see About Tableau Catalog.

The following features are included in this release:

See data quality warnings in Tableau Desktop - When you open a workbook in Tableau Desktop that has a data quality warning, the warning icon (either a blue circle or a yellow triangle with an exclamation point) appears on the Data tab on the sheet page of the workbook. For more information, see Set a Data Quality Warning

'Sensitive data' warning type added - You can use this new warning type to set a data quality warning for sensitive data in your organization. For more information, see Set a Data Quality Warning

Embedded assets are listed in External Assets - You can now see embedded assets listed in the External Assets page. For more information, see Use Lineage for Impact Analysis.

Tag external assets - Add tags to databases, tables, and columns, which enables you to, among other things, tag tables and columns with personally identifiable information (PII). For more information, see Tag Items(Link opens in a new window) in Tableau Desktop and Web Authoring Help.

Web authoring and interaction with views

New features and enhancements related to web authoring and interacting with views on the web are listed in What's New in Tableau for Users(Link opens in a new window) and Web Authoring and Tableau Desktop Feature Comparison(Link opens in a new window). For topics related to web authoring and interacting with views, see Using Tableau on the Web(Link opens in a new window).

Tableau Bridge

No Bridge upgrade or installation required – for publishers

For publishers working exclusively with data sources that connect to on-premises relational data, you no longer need to maintain your current client or upgrade to the latest. As long as you migrate your refresh schedules using Recommended schedules (next bullet), and your admin has installed and set up at least one Bridge 2020.2 client, you’re all set. For more information, see Set Up a Bridge Refresh Schedule.

Integrated refresh schedules

Refresh schedules for Bridge are now integrated with Tableau Cloud refresh schedules. For publishers, integrated refresh schedules, called Recommended schedules, mean:

• You have more control and flexibility to manage your own data sources.
• Your dependence on site admins is reduced for certain data source management tasks like updating connections credentials.

For more information, see Bridge refresh schedules versus Bridge legacy schedules.

Keep private cloud data fresh

Use Bridge to keep cloud data, accessible only from inside a private network, fresh. For more information, see Use Bridge for Private Cloud Data.

Pooling enabled for extract refreshes

Clients can pool extract refreshes, in addition to live queries, across all 2020.2 clients in the network. For site admins, pooling of extract refreshes means:

• You can focus on providing availability, throughput, and latency.
• You can optimize the composition of your client pool to match the characteristics of your live query and extract refresh workloads.

For more information, see Configure the Bridge Client Pool.

Updated Settings page

For site admins, the simplified Bridge Settings page allows you to configure which clients to include or exclude from the pool and displays a warning icon to make it easier to know which clients need to be upgraded to the latest version. For more information, see Configure the Bridge Client Pool.

Note: The warning icon shows only when there is a newer client available for download. The warning icon is not an indication that there are issues with the client or related Bridge data sources.

Site Capacity Updates for Extract Refreshes

To improve site performance and ensure a consistent scheduling experience, sites are allocated daily and concurrent extract refresh capacity. For more information, see Tableau Cloud Site Capacity.

Use relationships to combine data for multi-table analysis

Relationships are a new, flexible way to combine data for multi-table analysis in Tableau. Data sources now support multi-table data models in a new logical layer. Tableau recognizes the separate tables in your data source and performs aggregations at the native level of detail for each table.

Creators can combine tables using relationships. Using relationships between logical tables makes it easier to explore and analyze multi-table data at the right level of detail, without having to write specialized calculations to control aggregations like averages and totals.

You do not need to specify join types for relationships; during analysis Tableau automatically selects the appropriate join types based on the fields and context of analysis in the worksheet.

Note: Your workbook must use an embedded data source for you to be able to edit relationships in the Data Source page in web authoring in Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud. You cannot edit the data model of a published data source.

In support of multi-table analysis, several parts of the Tableau interface have changed. The Data Source page (canvas, data grid), View Data window, and the Data pane in the worksheet have all been updated to support a multi-table analysis experience. For more information, see Changes to different parts of the interface(Link opens in a new window).

Note: View Data column order has changed in Tableau 2020.2 and later. This change is required to support relationships and logical tables. For details, see View Data column order changes in Tableau 2020.2 and later.

For more information about relationships and changes to data sources, see these topics:

• What's Changed with Data Sources and Analysis in 2020.2
• Questions about Relationships, the Data Model, and Data Sources in 2020.2
• The Tableau Data Model
• Relate Your Data and Optimize Relationships Using Performance Options
• How Analysis Works for Multi-table Data Sources that Use Relationships
• Troubleshoot Multi-table Analysis
• Walkthrough: Don't Be Scared of Relationships

Also see this Tableau blog post: Relationships, part 1: Introducing new data modeling in Tableau(Link opens in a new window)

Create metrics to track data

Metrics help users track changes to their data. Users can create metrics from a view and use them to monitor key numbers like daily sales. For information on how users create metrics, see Create and Troubleshoot Metrics (Retired).

Tableau Cloud administrators can ensure that users are able to create metrics or disable metrics for the site. For more information, see Set Up for Metrics.

Add a Set Control to let users quickly modify the members of a set

With a Set Control, your audience can select the members of a set without necessitating edit mode. Users can simply add or remove set members by interacting directly with the card in the view. Coupled with Set Actions, you have two powerful, complementary features that make it easy to visualize the set you’re interested in.

For more information, see Create Sets, or check out this blog post, Powerful analytics in a user-friendly package with the set control.

Add or remove values from a set by interacting directly with the viz

Now, using Set Actions, you and your audience can use the viz itself to incrementally add values to or remove values from a set. Simply interact with the viz and choose which marks to include or exclude. Coupled with the new Set Control feature, you have two powerful ways to gain deeper insights into your data.

For more information, see Set Actions.

Upload and open workbooks with a browser

Users can now upload a Tableau workbook to your Tableau site without publishing through Tableau Desktop, the REST API, or TabCmd. In a Tableau site, users with a Creator or Explorer (can publish) site role can select New > Workbook Upload to upload a .twb or .twbx file (up to 50 MB) to a project. For more information, see Upload Workbooks to a Tableau Site(Link opens in a new window).

Access Dashboard Starters from Home in Tableau Cloud

Site Administrator Creators can now access Dashboard Starters from the Home page in Tableau Cloud. Use these pre-designed dashboards to quickly visualize data from common business applications like Salesforce or ServiceNow ITSM. For more information, see Use Accelerators to Quickly Visualize Data.

Tableau Catalog updates - part of the Data Management Add-on

Tableau Catalog is included in the separately licensed Data Management Add-on for Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud. For more information about Tableau Catalog, see About Tableau Catalog.

The following features are included in this release:

Raise the visibility of important warnings - You can set a data quality warning to be highly visible, so that users of a visualization that's affected by the warning see a notification, and the warning displays in a more prominent yellow color elsewhere in Tableau. For more information, see Set a Data Quality Warning and "Use Data Details to see visualization information" in Explore and Analyze Data in a View(Link opens in a new window) in the Tableau Desktop and Web Authoring Help..

Dashboards appear in the Lineage pane - When you select the Dashboards item in the lineage, you can see a list of downstream dashboards. For more information, see Use Lineage for Impact Analysis.

Filter external assets on Certified and data quality warnings - In addition to using search to narrow down your choices on External Assets, you can now filter databases, files, and tables by Certified and by data quality warnings.

More filters when connecting - When you connect to data, you can filter databases and table on connection type.

More information on what's new

Other new features and enhancements related to web authoring and interacting with views on the web are listed in What's New in Tableau for Users(Link opens in a new window) and Web Authoring and Tableau Desktop Feature Comparison(Link opens in a new window). For topics related to web authoring and interacting with views, see Using Tableau on the Web(Link opens in a new window).

Support for login-based license management

Login-based license management, helps you manage licensing for users with Creator roles on Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud. Users with Explorer or Viewer roles cannot use this feature. If you’re using Role Based Subscriptions with Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud, you can simplify your license management using login-based license management to eliminate separate Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep Builder product keys. You only need to manage one or more product keys for on-premises Tableau Server, or in the case of Tableau Cloud, you don’t need to manage any product keys at all.

For more information, see Activate Tableau using Login-based license management(Link opens in a new window).

Updates for Permission Dialog

Set permissions faster with the new permissions dialog. New permission templates(Link opens in a new window) and capability groupings match common user scenarios. Editing permission rules is easier than ever with direct editing—double click to enter edit mode. Search for groups and users simultaneously without preselecting your choice. Copy(Link opens in a new window) a custom permission rule and paste it for another group or user. And hand off project management to Project Leaders(Link opens in a new window) more intuitively with the new setting. For more information on permissions, see Permissions.

Lock nested projects

Regulating permissions is now more flexible. Project permissions can be locked independently for nested projects. Top-level projects can act as organizational containers for projects with different permission models. Non-admins can create new locked projects. For more information, see Lock content permissions.

Run Now Setting

This new setting allows Administrators to configure whether to allow or block users from manually running extract refreshes, flows runs, and subscriptions. The Run Now settings are on the General settings page, and by default, is selected to allow users to run jobs manually.

Tableau Catalog updates - part of the Data Management Add-on

Tableau Catalog is included in the separately licensed Data Management Add-on for Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud. For more information about Tableau Catalog, see About Tableau Catalog.

The following features are included in this release:

Added connectors - Connect to more data from external assets. We've added support for the following connectors: Google Big Query, Google Drive, Google Sheets, Box, Dropbox, and OneDrive.

Create workbooks - Create a workbook from the External Assets page or from a database or table page for Catalog-supported connections. For more information, see "Tableau Catalog users create workbooks from external assets" in Creators: Get Started with Web Authoring(Link opens in a new window) in the Tableau Desktop and Web Authoring Help.

Filter on Certified and data quality warnings - Filter data sources, databases, files, and tables by Certified, filter data sources by connections, and filter databases and tables by data quality warnings. For more information, see "Open the Connect to Data page" in Creators: Connect to Data on the Web(Link opens in a new window), or "Connect from Tableau Desktop" in Connect to Data by Using Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud(Link opens in a new window) in the Tableau Desktop and Web Authoring Help.

Enhanced Data Details pane -

• See a sparkline with the number of times a sheet or dashboard was viewed over the last 12 weeks.
• Easily see that there are Warnings on a view.
• Expand a field to see its metadata, such as a description or calculation.
• When a field in a workbook inherits its description, see where the description comes from.

  For more information, see "Use Data Details to see visualization information" in Explore and Analyze Data in a View(Link opens in a new window) in the Tableau Desktop and Web Authoring Help.

Web authoring and interaction with views

For a comprehensive list of new features and enhancements related to web authoring and interacting with views on the web, see the features listed under "Prepare, Author, and View Data on the Web" in What's New in Tableau for Users(Link opens in a new window) and Web Authoring and Tableau Desktop Feature Comparison(Link opens in a new window). For topics related to web authoring and interacting with views, see Using Tableau on the Web(Link opens in a new window).

Recommendations for views

Tableau Cloud now provides recommendations for views to help users discover relevant content. To learn more about these recommendations, see Discover Recommended Views.

You can control whether recommendations appear on your site, or whether user names appear on recommendation tooltips, by adjusting the options under Recommendations for Views on the Settings page.

Table visualization enhancements

Authors can now create wide tables with up to 50 columns. Wide tables with discrete fields can also now be scrolled horizontally. For more details, see Define Table Structure. Also, see this post on 50-column tables(Link opens in a new window) from Tableau Public Ambassador Marc Reid on the datavis.blog(Link opens in a new window).

Create extracts on the web

Now you can create extracts in the browser, without using Tableau Desktop. For more information, see Create Extracts on the Web . You can also use the new createextracts and deleteextracts commands in tabcmd to create or delete extracts for a published workbook or data source. For more information, see tabcmd Commands.

Disable email notifications when Tableau Bridge clients aren't running

If scheduled refreshes appear to be running outside of schedule or if you want to stop notifications you receive about clients not running, you can disable email notifications. For more information, see Change the Bridge Client Settings.

Enable or disable Ask Data for a site

As a site administrator, you can control the availability of Ask Data in the General area of site settings. For more information, see Disable or Enable Ask Data for a Site.

Support for Italian added

Tableau has added support for Italian. You can now set Tableau to display the user interface in one of eleven languages:

• Chinese (Simplified)
• Chinese (Traditional)
• English (United Kingdom)
• English (United States)
• French
• German
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Portuguese
• Spanish

For more information, see Change language and locale(Link opens in a new window) in the Tableau User Help.

In addition to supporting Italian in all Tableau products, the Help is also available in these languages. To read the help in your preferred language, navigate to the bottom of the Tableau Help page on the Tableau website, and select the language from the footer.

Select from ten different languages for Tableau

Tableau has added support for two new languages, Chinese (Traditional) and English (United Kingdom). You can now set Tableau to display the user interface in one of ten languages:

• Chinese (Simplified)
• Chinese (Traditional)
• English (United Kingdom)
• English (United States)
• French
• German
• Japanese
• Korean
• Portuguese
• Spanish

For more information, see Change language and locale(Link opens in a new window) in the Tableau User Help.

In addition to supporting two new languages in all Tableau products, the Help is also available in these languages. To read the help in your preferred language, navigate to the bottom of the Tableau Help page on the Tableau website, and select the language from the footer.

Help Design

A blue Send feedback icon is displayed in the bottom right corner of every Help page to make it easier for you to send feedback about the content in a topic. Click the icon to let us know if a topic is helpful to you, and also to comment on what needs improvement.

Improved content browsing

You have a new way to browse shared content. When you open a project, you will be able to see all the content that project contains—workbooks, views, data sources, flows, and nested projects—in a single grid or list. Locating content is easier, because you no longer need to navigate separate pages for different content types. For more information, see Tour Your Tableau Site(Link opens in a new window).

Ask Data to automatically create a viz

Ask Data introduces an entirely new way to interact with your data, letting you type a question and instantly get a response right in Tableau. Answers come in the form of automatic data visualizations, with no need to manually drag-and-drop fields or understand the nuances of your data’s structure.

Ask Data lets you ask sophisticated questions naturally, with support for key analytical concepts like time series and spatial analysis, and an understanding of conversational phrases like “last year”, “earliest”, and “most popular”.

Ask Data is available for all user roles with direct access to data sources: Creators, Explorers, and Interactors.

For more information, see Automatically Build Views with Ask Data(Link opens in a new window) in Tableau User Help.

Vector tile background maps

Maps created on or published to Tableau Cloud or Tableau Public now use vector tiles for quicker geographic data exploring. Maps now appear sharper and smoother when you pan and zoom, and labels and icons dynamically resize or reshape to fit your view. The new vector tile maps replace the underlying technology that powers Tableau background maps for a smoother and crisper experience. The background cartography for Tableau maps has also been updated.

New cloud connectors for web authoring

Use the Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Google BigQuery, and OneDrive connectors to connect Tableau Cloud or Tableau Server to your data. For more information, see Creators: Connect to Data on the Web.

Project card images

Project card images will no longer appear on the project card unless they are added as the last item in the project description and encapsulated with ! (exclamation marks). For more information, see Add a Project Image(Link opens in a new window).

Suspended subscription notifications

When you subscribe to a view or a workbook, you receive an email snapshot of that content at regular intervals. Now, you'll receive an email notification if something caused your subscription to fail, with links to resume or delete the failing alert. For more information, see Create a Subscription to a View or Workbook.

See new demographic data in Tableau Cloud and Tableau Public

Tableau Cloud and Tableau Public have a new, different source of demographic data than Tableau Desktop. If your map uses a demographic data layer in Tableau Desktop, you may notice some slight differences when that map is published to Tableau Cloud or Tableau Public, including the time period and value breaks in a legend. In addition, maps that use the “Block Group” Data Layer option in Tableau Desktop will be automatically updated to “Census Tract” when published to Tableau Cloud or Tableau Public. Six demographic data layers that appear in Tableau Desktop will be absent when maps are published to Tableau Cloud or Tableau Public:

• Population growth projections
• Household growth projections
• Housing units growth projections
• Effective Buying Income (median)
• Year structure built (median)
• Length of Residence (average in years)

Publishing maps from Tableau Desktop to Tableau Server will not result in any discrepancies.

Filter improvements

Use Ctrl-click (control-click on a Mac) to select multiple values in a multi-value filter in the view. The selected values can be non-contiguous and are indicated with a gray highlight. When the values are selected, you can then click any one of their check boxes to clear or choose the values at the same time.

Web authoring enhancements

• New cloud connectors for web authoring: Use the Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Google BigQuery, and OneDrive connectors to connect Tableau Cloud or Tableau Server to your data.

• Data improvements: Authors connecting to a new data source in Tableau Cloud or Tableau Server can now Run Initial SQL, connect to a custom SQL query, and add a join calculation to resolve mismatches between fields in a join.

• To better distinguish between dashboard items, you can now rename them using the Item hierarchy area of the Layout pane or the drop-down menu for each object on the canvas.

• After publishing to the web, click Preview device layouts in the browser to see how your designs look on desktop computers, tablets, and phones.

For related information on new features, also see What's New(Link opens in a new window) in Tableau Desktop and Web Authoring Help.

Tableau Cloud migrated to Linux servers. For more information, see Tableau Cloud Pod Migrations on the Tableau website.

Changes to Tableau Help

Search results within the product help have been expanded to include results for all Tableau products and help articles. Help layout and navigation, such as table of contents placement and breadcrumbs, have been updated to create a more consistent cross-product help experience.

Install Tableau Bridge separately from Tableau Desktop

Beginning with the 2018.2 release, you can install Tableau Bridge separately from Tableau Desktop. For more information about Tableau Bridge requirements, compatibility with previous version of Tableau Desktop, and Tableau Bridge client installation, see Install Tableau Bridge.

No auto-restart for Tableau Bridge

The standalone Tableau Bridge client does not use an auto-restart interval to restart itself automatically. For more information about the auto-restart interval required by previous versions of Tableau Bridge, see Tableau Bridge Frequently Asked Questions in the Tableau Knowledge Base.

Note: If you upgrade from Tableau Bridge 2018.1 and earlier to Tableau Bridge 2018.2, the auto-restart interval that remains in the configuration file is ignored.

Font support in Tableau Cloud

Tableau Cloud includes the following "web safe" fonts: Arial, Courier New, Georgia, Tableau, Times New Roman, Trebuchet MS, and Verdana.

If a visualization uses a font that is not available on Tableau Cloud, Tableau Cloud displays the visualization using a default system font instead. For more information, see Fonts Not Displaying as Expected After Publishing knowledge base article on the Tableau website.

Validate live connections in Tableau Bridge using Application mode

You can now quickly validate live connections in Tableau Bridge using Application mode. This means you can also choose to run live queries only when you are logged on to Windows if the site administrator has enabled the option. For more information, see How Tableau Bridge Works.

Manage dashboard extensions in Tableau Cloud

Dashboard extensions are web applications that provide users new ways to interact with data from other applications directly in Tableau. You can control the dashboard extensions that you allow to run in Tableau and can manage the extension's access to data. To learn more about controlling extensions, see Manage Dashboard and Viz Extensions in Tableau Cloud.

Include colleagues on data conversations with @mentions

To engage people in a conversation about compelling data you find in a view, @mention them in comments. As you begin to type a name, matching people with Tableau accounts at your organization appear in a list you can choose from. For more information, see Comment on Views in Tableau User Help.

Site administrators can disable @mentions in the General section of site settings.

Web authoring enhancements

• Enhance dashboard functionality by connecting to external applications with dashboard extensions. See Use Dashboard Extensions in Tableau User Help.

• Align dashboard items with a visual grid. See Size and Lay Out Your Dashboard in Tableau User Help.

• Use keyboard shortcuts to quickly create and edit views on the web. See Keyboard Shortcuts in Tableau User Help.

• Create multi-connection data sources and join data from different databases (cross-database joins). See Join Your Data in Tableau User Help.

  

• Union data from the same data connection on the web. See Union Your Data in Tableau User Help.

• When working with file-based data sources, you can pivot data from crosstab format into columnar format. See Pivot Data from Columns to Rows in Tableau User Help.

• Copy selected values in your data grid by pressing Ctrl+C (Windows) or (Command+C) (macOS). Alternatively, to copy selected values in the metadata grid, right-click, and select Copy.

• Find fields in the Data pane using schema search.

  

• Better control over sorting. Use nested sort to sort dimension values within the context of each pane. You no longer need to create calculated fields or combine dimensions. For more information, see Sort Data in a Visualization in Tableau User Help.

  Also, you can now access the Sort dialog box by right-clicking a dimension field on the Rows or Columns shelves in a view.

• If you've changed a view (for example, by adjusting filters), you can now create data alerts without first saving a custom view.

• You now have two ways to open the Edit Axis dialog box. Hover near the top of the axis (vertical axis) or to the right (horizontal axis) and click the drop-down arrow that appears. Or, double-click the axis.

  

• When you select Logarithmic scale for an axis, you now have the option to specify Symmetric to display data that contains 0 or negative values on a log scale axis. For details, see Edit Axes in Tableau User Help.

  

• Create and delete annotations by right-clicking the view (in a worksheet or dashboard), and then selecting point or mark annotation. Right-click the annotation again to edit or remove the annotation.

  

Materialize calculations in extracts already published to Tableau Cloud

If you need to retroactively materialize calculations in extracts that have already been published to Tableau Cloud, you can use tabcmd to refresh the published extract with the --addcalculations option. For more information about materializing calculations in extracts, see Materialize Calculations in Your Extracts in the Tableau User Help. For more information about the tabcmd option, see refreshextracts workbook-name or datasource-name.

New user-based term licenses are now available

Tableau now offers different types of user-based term licenses that grant a range of web authoring and other capabilities at various price points. This gives organizations more flexibility to fit licenses to the data analysis and visualization needs of different users. To learn more, see User-based licenses, or to see the capabilities of each license, see Tableau Pricing(Link opens in a new window).

Quickly analyze cloud-based data with Dashboard Starters

Dashboard Starters help you quickly author and analyze data from cloud-based systems like Salesforce, ServiceNow, Oracle Eloqua, and Marketo. Simply create a new workbook and choose from several beautiful, informative designs that are tailor-made for key business metrics. For more information, see Use Accelerators to Quickly Visualize Data

Configure additional Tableau Bridge clients to load balance live connections

Site administrators can configure additional Tableau Bridge clients on different computers to load balance live queries. For more information, see Allow Publishers to Maintain Live Connections to On-Premises Data(Link opens in a new window).

Cancel a scheduled extract refresh that's in progress using Tableau Bridge

There may be situations where you need to cancel an in-progress extract refresh. You can cancel an in-progress extract refresh if you have configured the extract to refresh on a schedule using Tableau Bridge. For more information, see Create a Schedule for a Tableau Bridge Data Source(Link opens in a new window).

Connect to data on the web

With a Creator user license, you can connect to data directly in your browser. Upload Excel or text-based data sources, connect to data housed in a cloud database or on a server in your enterprise, or connect to published data saved to your site. For more information, see Creators: Connect to data on the web.

Prepare your data on the web

With a Creator user license, use the Data Sources tab to prepare your data for analysis. Create joins, add new data sources, clean your data using the Data Interpreter, and more. For more information, see Creators: Prepare Data on the Web.

Add an accessible toolbar to an embedded view

Authors can enable an accessible toolbar so that all users can add comments, download the view, or share it with others. For more information, see Publish and embed the view in Author Views for Accessibility.

Download your workbook in an earlier version of Tableau

You may need to download your workbook to a different version of Tableau, for example, if the workbook needs to be opened in an earlier version of Tableau Desktop. You have the option of downloading your workbook in its current version, or downgrading it to an earlier version. For more information about version compatibility, see Make Workbooks Compatible Between Versions.

Web Authoring Enhancements

• When editing a view on the web, you can resize the width of row headers and the height of column headers.

    

• Show Me is now available for dashboards.

• Double-click an annotation to edit its text.

• Hide or show a Viz in Tooltip worksheet. In the target worksheet that is the Viz in Tooltip, click Hide. To show the Viz in Tooltip worksheet again, in the source worksheet, click Unhide All Sheets.

• Filter hierarchical data in views by using the All Values in Hierarchy filter option.

• Change the Line mark type to a step line or a jump line by clicking the Path property in the Marks card.

• Double-click an axis to edit axis settings.

Streamline discussion threads by deleting comments

If a comment is unnecessary or inaccurate, you can quickly delete it. Just click the X in the upper-right corner. For more information, see Comment on Views in Tableau User Help.

Tableau Cloud servers were upgraded to version 10.5.

Recommended data sources

Recommended data sources show Tableau Desktop users relevant data sources published to Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud. These recommendations are based on published data sources used by other users in your organization with similar usage behavior as the current user.

Nested projects

You can now create project hierarchies when you want to segment content into sub-sections within a larger area. For example, you might create a project for each department. In each of those top-level projects, you can separate content based on how the audience uses it, such as connecting to certified data versus in-progress collaboration. For more information, see the following articles:

• Use Projects to Manage Content Access

• Navigate projects in the article Navigate Tableau on the Web(Link opens in a new window)

Extracts use the new .hyper format

When you create an extract, it uses the new .hyper format. Extracts in this new format take advantage of the improved data engine, which supports the same analytical and query performance as the data engine before it, but for even larger extracts. Similarly, when you perform an extract task on a .tde extract, the extract is upgraded to a .hyper extract. For more information, see Extract Upgrade to .hyper Format.

Changes to the way values are computed

To improve data source efficiency and scalability, and produce results that are consistent with commercial databases, values in your data source can be computed differently in version 10.5. In some cases, these changes can cause differences with the values and marks in your view between version 10.4 (and earlier) and version 10.5 (and later). This applies to extract data sources, and can apply to multi-connection data sources, data sources that use live connections to file-based data, data sources that connect to Google Sheets data, cloud-based data sources, extract-only data sources, and WDC data sources. For more information, see Changes to values and marks in the view in the Tableau User Help.

Desktop operating system requirements (64-bit replaces 32-bit)

Starting with version 10.5, Tableau Desktop, Tableau Reader, and Tableau Public (desktop) run only on 64-bit operating systems. Version 10.4 is the last version of Tableau Desktop, Tableau Reader, and Tableau Public to support 32-bit Windows operating systems.

New in Web Authoring

• Add text objects to dashboards and edit them.

• Edit worksheet and dashboard titles. Double-click the title to open the Edit Title dialog box.

• Edit trend lines and view a description of the trend model. To view the trend model, hover over any part of the trend line. To edit a trend line on the web, click a trend line and hold the cursor in place, and then click the Edit menu.

• Trend lines now include a Power option.

• Create hierarchies by dragging one dimension onto another in the Data pane.

• Set the default color property for a field.

• For quantitative color legends, advanced settings are available (dates not included).

• Edit axes on the web. To open the Edit Axis dialog box on the web, double-click an axis in the view. Options available from the Edit Axis dialog box include Synchronize dual axes, clearing the axis range (Reset), and editing tick marks. You can also enable or disable Dual axis in a field context menu (right-click a measure field on Rows or Columns shelf).

Help Redesign

Starting with version 10.3, Tableau Desktop Help is now known as Tableau Help. Tableau Help contains all help topics related to analyzing and consuming data in Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, and Tableau Cloud. This help is for people who create workbooks or data sources and publish them, and for people who want to see, interact with, and share views in Tableau.

We welcome your feedback on this change, as well as any feedback or ideas you might have on how to make our content better. Please use the feedback bar on the top of any page ("Was this page helpful?") to open the comment field and submit your feedback.

Using Tableau on the Web provides links to the topics that used to be located in Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud help.

New to Web Authoring

Web authoring topics for Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud are now located in Tableau Help, starting with version 10.3.

Edit quantitative color legends

You can now edit the color palette for continuous color legends in web authoring. You can open the Edit Colors dialog box from the Marks card or by clicking the drop-down arrow on the legend.

Marks card:	Legend:

You can also set a custom color for the start and end colors by entering the Hex value.

Edit colors on separated legends

When you create separate color legends for measures in your view, you are no longer restricted to using only the default color palette or the color palette assigned to each color legend when the view was published from Tableau Desktop.

In web authoring mode, you can now select different color palettes for each legend. Click the drop-down arrow on the legend to open the Edit Colors dialog box and then select the color palette. You can also set custom start and end colors using Hex values.

Customize how people interact with your map

In web authoring mode, you can now customize how your audience interacts with your map view in the following ways using the Map Options dialog box:

• Show a map scale
• Hide map search
• Hide the view toolbar
• Turn off pan and zoom

For more information, see Customize How People Interact with your Map(Link opens in a new window).

Format numbers on the web

You can now specify basic number formatting for measures in the view on Tableau Server and Tableau Cloud. For more information, see Format Numbers and Null Values on Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud.

Create stories

In web authoring, you can now create a story to tell a data narrative, provide context, demonstrate how decisions relate to outcomes, or to simply make a compelling case. See Create a Story(Link opens in a new window) for details.