Tableau connector

With the Tableau® connector, you can use commands in a chain to interact with these versions of Tableau:

• 8.3
• 9.x
• 10.x
• 2018.x
• 2019.x
• 2020.1 and 2020.2
• Tableau Online®

Note: With Tableau's quarterly updates, newer API versions may not appear as options for the connector but are still supported through backward-compatibility.

For example, with this connector, you can:

• Add users to Tableau groups or sites
• Build Tableau data and hyper extracts
• Bulk delete or update permissions in Tableau
• Create and manage Tableau projects, groups, and sites
• Manage Tableau datasources and views

Prerequisites

To enable the connection, the connector uses the Tableau REST API, secured with basic username and password authentication. To set up the connector, you'll need:

• A designated integration user set up in Tableau for the connector
• The integration user's authentication credentials
• The URL of the Tableau instance to connect to, such as https://[region].online.tableau.com for Tableau Online
• The site to connect to within the Tableau instance
• The API version the Tableau instance uses, or the version of Tableau to connect to

  Tip: For information about how to find your Tableau version, see Tableau's knowledge base.

To use the connector's Build Hyper Extract or Build TDE Extract command with a GroundRunner, install the Tableau Extract API on its server, and move its dynamic-link library (DLL) files to a folder used by the registry, such as C:\Windows\System32.

Determine the site content URL name

Each instance of Tableau deploys with a default site, but your organization may deploy additional sites. The connector's Site content URL name property indicates which site it connects to. To determine the value for Site content URL name, check the URL of the Tableau content to connect to:

• The default site's URL follows a format of https://our.tableau.online.hostname/#/workbooks. To connect to the default site, enter Default in Site content URL name.
• Additional sites' URLs follow a format of https://our.tableau.online.hostname/#site/[site ID]/workbooks. To connect to an additional site, enter the value in the [site ID] portion of the URL in Site content URL name.

Note: The Site content URL name property is case-sensitive.

Set up the Tableau connector

Note: To make the connector available for use in your organization's chains, an org security administrator first enables it from Configuration.

1. From Chain Builder, click Connections  compare_arrows, and then Create at the top right.
2. Under BizApp Connection, select Tableau and the default CloudRunner.
   
3. Under Basic Info, enter a unique name and description to help identify the connection.
4. Under Properties, enter the connector's details:
   
   

   Property	Details
   Username	Enter the username of the connector's Tableau integration user.
   Password	Enter the password for the Username property.
   Tableau URL	Enter the base URL for the Tableau instance to connect to, such as https://us-east-1.online.tableau.com for Tableau Online.
   Site content URL name	Enter the ID of the site to connect to within the Tableau instance: To connect to your organization's default Tableau site, enter Default. To connect to an additional site your organization deployed, enter the ID that appears after /#site/ in the content's URL. Note: Site content URL name is case-sensitive.
   Version	Select the API version the Tableau instance uses, based on the version of Tableau. Note: If your version isn't an option, select the most recent API version.

   Note: All sensitive credentials are automatically encrypted and stored at Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)-256 encryption.

5. Select the environments to use with the connection, and click Save.
6. To test the connection, create and run a chain with the connector's Get Sites command, and verify it returns a valid output.

Troubleshooting

If the connection to Tableau fails:

• Verify the integration user's authentication credentials.
• Check the base URL and site ID of the Tableau instance and site to connect to.
• Verify the API version selected for the connector matches the version of your Tableau instance.

If a command returns an exit code of Success but has no output, verify the site ID entered for the connector's Site content URL name:

• To connect to your organization's default Tableau site, enter Default.
• To connect to an additional site your organization deployed, enter the ID that appears after /#site/ in the content's URL.