One of the new features that I am most excited about in Tableau 9.1 is the Web Data Connector (WDC). It simplifies the process of connecting Tableau to data that doesn't already have a native connector. It allows you to connect to virtually anything that can be queried over http or https, including web services, JSON, XML, and REST APIs. Be sure to bookmark the Web Data Connector Developers section of the community if this is of interest to you.
Although some assembly is required, a Web Data Connector is essentially a simple HTML page with a bit of Javascript code that queries an http target and builds a TDE (Tableau Data Extract). Because the connector is something you can build with a bit of script, you can even combine multiple datasources in a single workflow. Think of all the possibilities!
Well let's say you want to connect to Google sheets. How do you get started? Well if someone out there is already hosting a WDC for Google sheets, you can just connect using that URL when prompted. For reference, here is a list of community created WDCs so far, some hosted, some that you'll have to host yourself. Try out the import.io connector if you want to connect to some web data fast.
If you don't have a hosted option available, you may need to host it yourself. One option is to spin up a web server on your local machine so that you can call your html page through the Web Data connector option in Tableau Desktop. The documentation in the aforementioned resources will include details on how to setup Python as a local web server as an example.
If you want to make this WDC available across your organization, and/or make scheduled refreshes of the extract available, you will need to import the .html file into Tableau Server. By importing the WDC to Tableau Server, it becomes centralized, secure, and no longer requires Tableau Desktop users to spin up their own local server! Now go connect to some web data and publish something cool to Tableau Public (using public data of course)!
The Web Data Connector provides a practical way to extend Tableau beyond its native data connectors, allowing external web services and structured formats such as JSON and XML to become usable data sources. The article also gives a clear progression from connecting to an existing WDC to hosting and deploying one.
ReplyDeleteThe use of HTTP and HTTPS endpoints, REST APIs, and web services makes RESTful API Training particularly relevant. The ability to query these sources and build a Tableau Data Extract shows how API-based data access can support analytics workflows.
The article also explains that a WDC is essentially an HTML page containing JavaScript code that queries an HTTP target. This web-based implementation makes Web Development Training a natural connection, especially when working with local web servers and browser-based integration.
ReplyDeleteThe combination of HTML and JavaScript is another important part of building the connector, while the discussion of hosting the page and making it available through Tableau Server demonstrates how these technologies work together in practice. This makes HTML CSS Javascript Training a relevant complementary topic.
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