Integrations → Tableau

About Tableau

Tableau is desktop software for creating interactive data visualizations and dashboards. Tableau Desktop allows you to quickly connect, visualize, and share data with a seamless experience from virtually anywhere. With the Tableau Connector SDK, the Incorta Connector has been built to connect Tableau to Incorta using a JDBC driver. With the Tableau JDBC Capabilities Customizations Reference, the connector has been further customized with respect to how it generates and executes SQL.

Enable the Tableau External Integration Instructions

To display the Tableau external integration instructions within Incorta, the Cluster Management Console (CMC) Administrator must enable Tableau in the CMC with the following steps:

Enable the Tableau External Integration Instructions for the Default Tenant Configuration

Here are the steps to enable the Tableau external integration instructions for the Default Tenant Configuration:

Sign in to the CMC.
In the Navigation bar, select Clusters.
In the cluster list, select a Cluster name.
In the canvas tabs, select Cluster Configurations.
In the panel tabs, select Default Tenant Configurations.
In the left pane, select External Visualization Tools.
In the right pane, enable Tableau.
Select Save.

Enable the Tableau External Integration Instructions for a Tenant Configuration

Here are the steps to enable the Tableau external integration instructions for a specific tenant:

Sign in to the CMC.
In the Navigation bar, select Clusters.
In the cluster list, select a Cluster name.
In the canvas tabs, select Tenants.
For the given tenant, select Configure.
In the left pane, select External Visualization Tools.
In the right pane, enable Tableau.
Select Save.

View the Tableau External Integration Instructions

Here are the steps to view the Tableau external integration instructions within Incorta:

Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform™.
In the Navigation bar, select Content.
In the Action bar, select + New → Connect other Visualization Tools.
In the Connect other Visualization Tools page, select Tableau to view the procedure.

External Integration for Tableau

The Incorta Connector for Tableau uses the PostgreSQL JDBC v42.2.1 driver. This version of the driver supports how the Incorta SQLi interface implements the PostgreSQL protocol for external integrations.

Tableau Connector Deployment Steps

Install the Postgres JDBC Driver

Here are the steps to install the Postgres JDBC driver on Windows or macOS:

Download the Postgres JDBC Driver JAR (postgresql-42.2.1.jar) from the Tableau Extensions Gallery.
Place the JAR file in the folder for your operating system as shown below:

Windows: C:\Program Files\Tableau\Drivers

macOS: /Users/[user]/Library/Tableau/Drivers

Install the Tableau Connector (TACO) File

Download the TACO file from the Tableau Extensions Gallery. There are differing steps for installing the TACO file on Tableau Desktop and Tableau Server.

Install the TACO file on Tableau Desktop

Here are the steps to install the TACO file on Tableau Desktop for Windows or macOS:

Copy the packaged connector file with the .taco filename extension into the folder for your operating system as shown below:

Windows: C:\Users\[Windows User]\Documents\My Tableau Repository\Connectors

macOS: /Users/[user]/Documents/My Tableau Repository/Connectors
Open Tableau Desktop.

Install the TACO file on Tableau Server

Here are the steps for the Tableau Administrator to install the TACO file on Tableau Server:

Option 1: Single Node

Copy your .taco file into [Your Tableau Server Install Directory]/data/tabsvc/vizqlserver/Connectors. On a default install, this will be in the ProgramData folder. For example, C:\ProgramData\Tableau\Tableau Server\data\tabsvc\vizqlserver\Connectors.
Restart your server.

Option 2: Multiple Node

Create a directory for Tableau Connectors. This needs to be the same path on each machine. For example, C:\tableau_connectors.
Copy your packaged connector file (with a .taco filename extension) into the folder your created on each node.
Set the native_api.connect_plugins_path option. For example:
```
tsm configuration set -k native_api.connect_plugins_path -v C:/tableau_connectors
```
If you get a configuration error during this step, try adding the --force-keys option to the end of the command.
Apply the pending configuration changes. This restarts the server.
```
tsm pending-changes apply
```

Note

After deploying the Incorta Connector, you will need to restart the Tableau Server.

Steps to Connect Tableau to Incorta

After opening Tableau, follow these steps to connect to Incorta and start using Tableau to visualize your Incorta data:

In Connect, in To a Server, select Incorta Connector by Incorta.
In the General tab of the Incorta Connector by Incorta dialog, enter the Tableau to Incorta connection properties.
Select Sign In.

Tableau to Incorta connection properties

Tab	Property	Control	Description
General	Server	text box	Enter the name of the Incorta server as displayed in the Tableau external integration instructions
General	Port	text box	Enter the port as displayed in the Tableau external integration instructions. The default port is 5436. You can enter port 5442 to connect directly through Spark.
General	Tenant	text box	Enter the name of the Incorta tenant
General	Username	text box	Enter your Incorta username
General	Password	text box	Enter your Incorta password
General	Require SSL	checkbox	Select this property to sign in with SSL
Initial SQL	Initial SQL	text box	Specify an initial SQL command that will run when a connection is made to the database
	drop down list	Select this property to pass parameters to your data source
Advanced	Fetch Size	text box	Used for performance improvement, fetch size defines the number of records that will be retrieved from the database in each batch until all records are retrieved. The default is 2048.
Advanced	Custom Driver Parameters	text box	Optionally enter connector parameters for a custom connection to Incorta in the format: propertyName1=propertyValue1;propertyName2=propertyValue2 The available connector parameters are specified by `postgresql-42.2.1.jar`. Refer to the Connection Parameters section of The PostgreSQL JDBC Interface document for further information.

Select an Incorta Schema to Analyze in Tableau

Select an Incorta schema to analyze within Tableau:

In the left panel, in the Schema drop down list, select a schema. You can filter the schema list by entering a string in the schema search bar.
From the list of tables that appears for the schema, select a table. You can filter the table list by entering a string in the table search bar.
Drag and drop the table of interest to the Drag tables here canvas.