This document summarizes a presentation on using Tableau for data visualization. It introduces the main Tableau products: Tableau Desktop for creating visualizations, Tableau Server for enterprise deployments, Tableau Online for cloud hosting, and Tableau Public for freely sharing visualizations online. It demonstrates how to connect data and create workbooks and dashboards in Tableau Desktop. It also discusses the Tableau APIs for extracting data, publishing to Server, and integrating visualizations into other web applications.

1. Doing data visualizations with
Tableau
A beginner’s tale
Ray Schwartz
William Paterson University of New Jersey
May 3, 2016
ELUNA Developers Day
3:30pm–3:55pm, Cox Convention 20
Oklahoma City, OK

2. Overview
• Brief introduction to the suite of Tableau products. What they are,
who are they for, and what they can do.
• Introduction to Tableau Public
• Demonstration of connecting data
• Demonstration of creating a workbook
• Demonstration of creating a dashboard
• Discussion of APIs.

3. Tableau Products
Tableau Desktop
A Windows/Mac application that comes in two editions (Personal and
Professional). Personal allows connection to files and local saving only, while
Professional also allows individuals to connect to a wider variety of data sources
and save to your own server, Tableau Online servers, or Tableau Public servers.
Tableau Desktop is free for students and instructors at accredited academic
institutions.
Tableau Server
Best suited for enterprise-wide deployments, this is a business intelligence
system for secure access to enterprise data and user interaction via web portals
on a company intranet (requires Desktop Professional).
Tableau Online
A hosted solution for storing and accessing data dashboards in the cloud
(requires Desktop Professional.
Jones, B. (2014). Communicating Data with Tableau (1 edition). Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media.

4. Tableau Public
Tableau Public is a free application and visualization hosting
service for sharing of publicly available data on the Web (exists as
a standalone Windows/Mac application, or can be published to
via Desktop Professional).
Tableau Reader
A free Windows/Mac application that allows users to open saved
Tableau workbook files (.twbx) and to view and interact with
visualizations that have been created and saved locally with
Tableau Desktop or downloaded from the Web via Tableau
Public. Users of Tableau Reader cannot create new visualizations
or change the design of existing ones.
Jones, B. (2014). Communicating Data with Tableau (1 edition). Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media.

5. All of these products incorporate the same data visualization user
interface and VizQL engine. Tableau Desktop Professional is the
cornerstone product that allows users to access the other products.
The products differ in the types of data sources users can connect to
and how visualizations can be shared with others.

6. Jones, B. (2014). Communicating Data with Tableau (1 edition). Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media.

7. Tableau Public
Tableau Public is a data discovery tool. It should not be confused with
enterprise-grade business intelligence tools, such as Tableau Desktop
and Server, QlikView, and Cognos Insight. Those tools integrate with
corporate networks and security protocols as well as server-based data
warehouses.
Ohmann, A., & Floyd, M. (2015). Creating Data Stories with Tableau Public. Packt Publishing.

8. Limitations of Tableau Public
• Support for data sets of up to 10 million rows so that anyone can
analyze nearly all publicly available datasets for free.
• An increased storage limit of 10 GB for everyone, so authors can
create and store more information in Tableau Public.
• The ability to limit the downloading of files from Tableau Public,
letting authors keep their workbooks proprietary.

10. Tableau SDK
Starting in Tableau 9.1, the Tableau Data Extract API is incorporated into the
Tableau SDK. The SDK supports Windows, Linux, and the Mac, using C, C++,
Java, and Python.
The Tableau SDK contains a set of functions for creating extracts and for
publishing extracts to a Tableau Server. The SDK includes these APIs:
• Extract API. This API lets you create and populate Tableau Data Extract
(.tde) files. Using this API, you can write a program that connects to data
sources that are not currently supported by Tableau, and then write the
data into a .tde file for use later by Tableau. Note: This API was previously
called the Tableau Data Extract API or TDE API.
• Server API. This API lets you publish data extracts as data sources to a
Tableau Server.
https://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/pro/online/mac/en-us/extracting_TDE_API.html
https://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/api/sdk/en-us/help.htm

11. Tableau JavaScript API
Use the Tableau JavaScript API to integrate Tableau visualizations into your
own web applications.
Here are some of the things that you can do with the JavaScript API:
• Display visualizations from Tableau Server, Tableau Public, and Tableau
Online in web pages.
• Dynamically load and resize visualizations.
• Filter the data displayed in visualizations with HTML controls in the page.
• Select marks in visualizations.
• Respond to events in visualizations.
• Export visualizations to an image or PDF file.
http://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/api/js_api/en-us/JavaScriptAPI/js_api.htm

12. References
• Jones, B. (2014). Communicating Data with Tableau (1 edition).
Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media.
• Milligan, J. N. (2015). Learning Tableau - How Data Visualization
Brings Business Intelligence to Life. Packt Publishing.
• Murray, D. G. (2016). Tableau Your Data!: Fast and Easy Visual
Analysis with Tableau Software (2 edition). Indianapolis, IN: Wiley.
• Nandeshwar, A. (2013). Tableau Data Visualization Cookbook. Packt
Publishing.
• Ohmann, A., & Floyd, M. (2015). Creating Data Stories with Tableau
Public. Packt Publishing.

13. • Tableau Software. (2016). All Technical Specifications. Retrieved May
2, 2016, from http://www.tableau.com/products/techspecs
• Tableau Software. (2016). Analytics for Every Student, Educator, and
Campus. Retrieved May 2, 2016, from
http://www.tableau.com/academic
• Tableau Software. (2016). Tableau Data Extract API. Retrieved May 2,
2016, from
https://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/pro/online/mac/en-
us/extracting_TDE_API.html
• Tableau Software. (2016). Tableau JavaSCript API. Retrieved May 2,
2016, from http://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/api/js_api/en-
us/JavaScriptAPI/js_api.htm
• Tableau Software. (2016). Tableau SDK. Retrieved May 2, 2016, from
https://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/api/sdk/en-us/help.htm