Configure External Actions Workflow Integration

Applies to: Tableau Server

Note: External Actions in Tableau rely on functionality provided by Salesforce Flow. The feature sends your selected data to Salesforce Flow, which runs on separate Salesforce infrastructure. Use of Salesforce Flow and other Salesforce products and services is subject to your agreement with Salesforce.

For more information on how to use External Actions, see Integrate External Actions(Link opens in a new window).

Editions, site roles, and permissions requirements

To configure and use External Actions workflows, you and anyone who will be using workflows must have certain site roles and permissions in editions of Salesforce and Tableau that support External Actions.

Product Editions Site Roles and Permissions
Tableau Tableau Cloud(Link opens in a new window), Tableau Desktop(Link opens in a new window), or Tableau Server(Link opens in a new window) versions 2022.3 or later

To create or edit a workflow: Creator(Link opens in a new window) or Explorer(Link opens in a new window) (can publish) site role, and permissions to edit and save workbooks (Linux(Link opens in a new window) | Windows(Link opens in a new window))

To use a workflow: Any site role
Salesforce Essentials, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, or Developer edition (see Salesforce Editions(Link opens in a new window))

To create or edit a flow: Manage Flows permission(Link opens in a new window)

To use a flow: Run Flows permission(Link opens in a new window) or Flow User setting on the user detail page(Link opens in a new window) or Override default behavior and restrict access to enabled profiles or permission sets setting in Flow node (See How Does Flow Security Work?(Link opens in a new window))

Deployment requirements for External Actions

To use the External Actions workflow extension, the Salesforce administrator must create a connected app(Link opens in a new window) in Salesforce for Tableau Server.

Also, the domain for the Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud site where the extension will be deployed must be added to the Salesforce Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) allowlist(Link opens in a new window).

Turn External Actions On or Off

In Tableau 2022.3 and later, the Tableau External Actions feature is turned on by default. To turn off the feature, you can use the Tableau Services Manager (TSM) command line interface (CLI) or configure site-level settings.

Use the TSM CLI

Use the TSM CLI(Link opens in a new window) to set the value for the vizqlserver.workflow_objects_enabled configuration key to tsm configuration set -k vizqlserver.workflow_objects_enabled -v false.

After changing the configuration key value, be sure to apply the change using the tsm pending-changes apply command. If the pending changes require a server restart, the pending-changes apply command will display a prompt to let you know a restart will occur. This prompt displays even if the server is stopped, but in that case there's no restart. You can suppress the prompt using the --ignore-prompt option, but this option doesn't change the restart behavior. If the changes don't require a restart, the changes are applied without a prompt. For more information, see tsm pending-changes apply(Link opens in a new window).

Modify Site-Level Settings

For more information on how to customize site-level settings in Tableau Server, see Site Settings Reference(Link opens in a new window).

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