Tableau Desktop and Web Authoring Help

This topic describes how to connect Tableau to a LinkedIn Sales Navigator database and set up the data source.

Note: Tableau is working on a replacement connector. After it's complete, it will be added to this page.

Warning: The LinkedIn Sales Navigator connector is deprecated as of the 2023.1 release. You can use the connector until it’s been retired. Once the Connector is retired, it’s removed from the Tableau user interface and any data sources using the connector will no longer work as expected. The deprecated connector will be retired 1-2 releases after the replacement connector is made available.

Note: For the most up-do-date information on this connector, see the LinkedIn Sales Navigator help topic for the current version of Tableau.

Before you begin

Before you begin, get the email address or phone number, and password for the LinkedIn Sales Navigator account.

You need a Sales Navigator Enterprise plan and Sales Navigator administrator or reporting permissions. Note that a reporting user doesn't take up a Sales Navigator seat on the contract.

Make the connection and set up the data source

1. Start Tableau and under Connect, select LinkedIn Sales Navigator. For a complete list of data connections, select More under To a Server. Then do the following:

   1. Select Sign In to authenticate to LinkedIn in your default browser.
   2. Enter your email or phone number and your password for the LinkedIn Sales Navigator account.
   3. Select Sign in.
   4. Close the browser window when notified to do so.
   5. In the LinkedIn Sales Navigator Connection dialog box, select the following:
   • Contracts : Custom or all
   • Date Range: Relative or fixed
   6. Select Connect.

      If Tableau can't make the connection, verify that your credentials are correct. If you still can't connect, your computer is having trouble accessing LinkedIn. Contact your network or database administrator.

2. On the data source page, do the following:

   1. (Optional) Select the default data source name at the top of the page, and then enter a unique data source name for use in Tableau. For example, use a data source naming convention that helps other users of the data source figure out which data source to connect to.

   2. Select a standard connection or create your own custom connection.

      Under Standard Connection, you can select from a list of predefined selections of tables and joins that represent common scenarios and use cases. Or under Table, you can select a table or search for a table by name.

   3. Drag the standard connection or table to the canvas, and then select the sheet tab to start your analysis.

Use Accelerators

You can use an Accelerator to quickly build informative dashboard designs made specifically for key business metrics on Tableau Desktop and Tableau Cloud. For more information, see Use Accelerators to Quickly Visualize Data.

Date range selections can impact performance

It’s tempting to gather as much data as possible when you run an analysis. Tableau doesn’t know how much data there is in a particular date range until it retrieves the data. For this reason, you should restrict your date range at first, and then expand after you evaluate performance.

Refresh LinkedIn Sales Navigator data

After you click the sheet tab, Tableau imports the data by creating an extract. Tableau Desktop supports only extracts for LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Note that the initial extract may take some time.

To refresh, select Data> [data source name] > Extract> Refresh.