Tableau Desktop and Web Authoring Help

Viz Extensions are web applications that can extend the native visual capabilities of Tableau. Viz Extensions give users the ability to interact with custom viz types on their worksheets.

Tableau Extensions expand worksheet functionality with the help of web applications created by Tableau, Tableau Partners and third-party developers in our community. If you're a developer and want to create your own extensions, see the Tableau Extensions API documentation on GitHub.

A Viz Extension is similar to a dashboard extension in that it's a web application that is hosted on the Tableau Exchange. It's different from a dashboard extension in that you add it to a worksheet while building the viz, rather than adding it to a dashboard as an object.

Add a Viz Extension to a worksheet

There are two ways to add a Viz Extension to your worksheet via the Marks card. If you've already downloaded it through the Tableau Exchange, you can add it as a local file. Or you can download it from the Tableau Exchange in the flow of authoring your Viz.

Add a Viz Extension as a local file

If you've already selected and downloaded a Viz Extension from the Tableau Exchange, it will be saved on your computer as a .trex file.

1. Open a Tableau workbook and connect to your data source.

2. In a worksheet, on the Marks card, expand the Mark type drop-down menu.

3. Under Viz Extensions, select Add Extension.
   
   

4. In the Add an Extension dialog box that appears, select Access Local Viz Extensions.
   
   

5. Navigate to and open the saved .trex file.

6. If prompted, allow or deny the Viz Extension access to data in the workbook.

The Viz Extension loads in the view, and the mark type changes to the name of the Viz Extension.

Add a Viz Extension while authoring your viz

If you haven't already selected and downloaded a Viz Extension, you can do so in the flow of authoring a viz.

1. Open a Tableau workbook and connect to your data source.

2. In a worksheet, on the Marks card, expand the Mark type drop-down menu.

3. Under Viz Extensions, select Add Extension.
   
   

4. In the Add an Extension dialog box that appears, select the Viz Extension that you'd like to load onto your worksheet. In this example, we're loading a Sankey diagram built by Tableau.
   
   

5. If prompted, allow or deny the Viz Extension access to data in the workbook. For more information, see Data security, Network-enabled and Sandboxed extensions.

6. Select Open.
   
   

The Viz Extension loads in the view, and the mark type changes to the name of the Viz Extension.

Use the Marks card to encode your marks

Drag fields onto the encoding boxes on the Marks card to build the viz. The Mark encoding boxes and formatting options are determined by the developer. Check the extension description on the Tableau Exchange for information on the Viz Extension you're loading.

To follow along with the Sankey extension, follow these encoding instructions:

The Sankey extension is built to use extension-specific encoding for Levels and Links. These can be used with the built-in Marks encoding boxes Tooltip and Details to build the Sankey on the worksheet.

• Level - Sankey levels represent the categorical dimensions that are related by the Sankey. In this extension, you can include up to 5 discrete dimensions as Levels.

• Link - Sankey links connect the categories across the Sankey. This encoding will size the width of each link based on a numeric measure.

Ensure that extensions are allowed on Tableau Cloud

If you're not able to add a Viz Extension, check to see if extensions have been allowed on your site. A Tableau administrator must allow extensions to run on a site and add Network-enabled extensions to an allow list. Administrators should only allow extensions that you have tested and trust.

To learn more about adding Network-enabled extensions to an allow list, see Tableau Help: Change the default settings for a site.

Data security, Network-enabled and Sandboxed extensions

Extensions are web applications that come in two forms:

• Network-enabled extensions run on web servers located outside of your local network.
• Sandboxed extensions run in a protected environment without access to any other resource or service on the web.

Before adding a Network-enabled extension, be certain that you trust the website that hosts it. By default, extensions use the HTTPS protocol, which guarantees an encrypted channel for sending and receiving data, and ensures some privacy and security.

For more information about data security when using extensions, see Extension Security - Best Practices for Deployment(Link opens in a new window).

Allow or deny data access to a Network-enabled extension

Depending on how an extension is designed, it can access either visible data in a view, or full underlying data, table and field names from data sources, and information about data source connections. When you add an extension, you're given an opportunity to allow or deny the extension to run and access this data.

Reset data access for your extension

If you need to reset the data access permissions for your extension, you can simply reload the extension by selecting Add Extension on the Marks card and then re-adding the extension to the worksheet. These steps kick off the process to allow or deny access to the extension.

Ensure that JavaScript is enabled in Tableau Desktop

Viz extensions interact with data using the Tableau Extensions API library, a JavaScript library. If you want to use extensions, be sure that JavaScript is enabled in the security settings:

Choose Help > Settings and Performance > Set Dashboard Web View Security > Enable JavaScript.

Get support for Viz Extensions

To get help for an extension, you'll need to contact the developer or company who created it through the Tableau Exchange.

Note: Tableau doesn't provide support for extensions or for other programs that interface with the Extensions API. However, you can submit questions and ask for help in the Tableau developer community(Link opens in a new window).