Some Findings While Working on Tableau

Observations

• More than 16 dimensions is not possible in table layout
• Side by side bar with line chart is not possible
• Exporting all dashboards or all sheets in a single dashboard in to single excel file is not possible
• When title as header session it is not showing all values as list, it is showing it as 5 more
• There is no multiple selection in parameters
• If we use data base column in parameters list that list is not refreshing dynamically.
• Dynamic pagination is not there.
• Session is not there (like SAP BO)
• Automatic text wrapping is not there
• Selected prompt values deselecting multiple values is not there like other reporting tools.
• Sort icon is not working as other reporting tools
• Tableau taking much time to sort the filter values.
• CountD, Median, percentile functions does not work when we use data blending.
• Adding subtotals and totals is not possible when we add measures in between dimension columns in discrete mode.
• In cross tab report Coloring to entire row based on KPI is not possible in tableau
• Zero value issues in Pie, Bar chart and Bubble chart with Marks labels

Source : Suresh Reddy Nallapa Reddy

Top 10 and Bottom 10 values by Sales

1) First you create a set for top 10 Products by Right click on a product field-> then create a set -> then select "Top" ->  then define "10", choose "Sales"  with sum.

2) Create second set  for create Bottom 10 Products by right click on a product field -> create a set -> then select bottom -> then define 10, choose sales with sum

3)  now combine the first and second set, by clicking on any one of the sets and -> selecct combine set -> select all values 

4) First drag the sales in to rows shelf, and then Products in to columns shelf.

5) Now drag the combine set in to the filter shelf... now your view will have only top 10 and bottom 10 values by sales.

Tableau Connection Error - 127

Once in  six months or an year, We used to recieve a connection error called 127 in Tableau especially when we connected to an Oracle Database.  It means the database connection drivers might be out of date.

Fix for this is : We need to downlaod the right version of Oracle Instant client, Unzip it to the Oracle folder and then add it to the system Environment variable Path.

After that you should restart your Tableau server. That's it...

How to Create Installation log in Tableau?

Step 1: Download the Tableau Desktop or Tableau Reader installer to your machine, to the location of your choice.
Step 2: Click the Start button.
Step 3: In the search box, type Command Prompt. In the list of results, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.
Step 4: Type cd c:\ to change the drive directory to c:
Step 5: Type cd and the path to the location where you downloaded the Tableau Desktop or Tableau Reader installer in step 1.
For example, cd Users\<username>\Desktop. The <username> must be replaced with your Windows username.
Step 6: For Tableau Desktop, type TableauDesktop.exe /t:"full path to the folder of your choice"/c to simultaneously extract the Tableau Desktop installer to a folder that is created with a name of your choice.

For Tableau Reader, type 
For Tableau Reader, type TableauReader.exe /t: "full path to the folder of your choice"/c.
For example, TableauDesktop.exe /t:"c:\Users\<username>\Desktop\TableauDesktopTemp"/c.
Step 7: Type cd and the name of the folder you created in step 6.
For example, cd TableauDesktopTemp.
Step 8: Type dir to see the contents of this folder.
Make note of the full name of the .msi file contained in this folder. For example, the full name of Tableau Desktop .msi file may look similar to this, tableau-setup-std-tableau-6-1.11.0724.1830.msi.
Step 9: Type msiexec /i fullfilename.msi /l*v logfile.txt to install Tableau. Everything that happens during this installation process is recorded in the installation log called "logfile.txt".

Replace"fullfilename.msi" with the full file name you noted in step 8. For example, 
Replace"fullfilename.msi" with the full file name you noted in step 8. For example, msiexec /i tableau-setup-std-tableau-6-1.11.0724.1830.msi /l*v logfile.txt.
Step 10 (optional):If an error or other issue occurs during installation, navigate to the folder you created in step 6. It will contain the installation log called "logfile.txt".https://www.facebook.com/groups/15888884513646

Tableau Server Components

 

The work of Tableau Server is handled with the following four server processes:  

 

Application Server:    Application Server processes handle browsing and permissions for the Tableau Server web and mobile interfaces.   

 

VIZQL Server:   Once a view is opened, the client sends a request to the ViZQL  process.The ViZQL process then sends queries directly to the data source, returning a result set that is rendered as images and presented to the user. Each ViZQL Server has its own cache that can be shared across multiple users.

 

Data Server:  The Tableau Data Server lets you centrally manage and store Tableau data sources. It also maintains metadata from Tableau Desktop, such as calculations, definitions, and groups. The published data source can be based on:  • A Tableau Data Engine extract  • A live connection to a relational database (cubes are not supported)   

 

Backgrounder:   The backgrounder refreshes scheduled extracts and manages other background tasks.

 

Data Connectors:  Tableau includes a number of optimized data connectors for databases such as Microsoft Excel, SQL Server, Oracle, Teradata ,Vertica , Cloudera Hadoop  and many more. 

There is also a generic ODBC connector for any systems without a native connector.   

 

Tableau provides two modes for interacting with data:  

 • Live connection  

• In-memory.  

 Users can switch between a live and in-memory connection as they choose.

 

Clients: Web Browsers and Mobile Apps

 

Tableau Server provides interactive dashboards to users via zero-footprint HTML and JavaScript (AJAX) in a web browser, or natively via a mobile app. No plug-ins or helper applications are required. Tableau Server supports:  

 

Web browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari  

 

Mobile Safari: Touch-optimized views are automatically served on mobile Safari  

 

iPad app: Native iPad application that provides touch-optimized views and content browsing  

 

Android app: Native Android application that provides touch-optimized views and content browsing  

Android browser: Touch-optimized views are automatically offered in the Android browse

Tableau Server Architecture

What is a Tableau Server?

Tableau Server is a business intelligence application that provides browser-based analytics which requires no programming and it is an enterprise-class business analytics platform that can scale up to hundreds of thousands of users. 

Tableau server have its own Apache web server and it will configure automatically when the installation is processing.