Fundamentals of Tableau in DV

Basics or Fundamentals of Tableau in DV are categorized into –

Introduction of Tableau

• There are several versions of Tableau used in various work standards of visualizations. These are – 
  • Tableau Desktop: This is with the authoring tool used to create visualizations and dashboards.
  • Tableau Server: This is a self-hosted enterprise solution for sharing and collaborating on visualizations within organizations.
  • Tableau Online: This is a cloud-based version of Tableau Server hosted by Tableau.
  • Tableau Public: This is a free version of Tableau for creating and sharing visualizations publicly.
• Tableau offers comprehensive documentation and tutorials on its website to help users get started with the tool.
• There are many online courses and training programs available, both free and paid, that cover various aspects of Tableau.
• Joining Tableau Community Forums and User Groups can provide valuable insights, tips, and best practices from experienced users.
• This suggests that the best way to learn Tableau is by practicing with real data trying to explore different datasets and experimenting with Tableau’s features to build the skills.

Definition of Tableau

• Tableau is a powerful and widely used data visualization software that enables users to create interactive and visually appealing dashboards and reports from various data sources.
• Tableau is a versatile and user-friendly data visualization tool that empowers users to explore, analyze, and visualize data in powerful and interactive ways.
• Tableau is a business intelligence and data visualization software that helps users transform raw data into meaningful insights through interactive dashboards, charts, graphs, and reports.

Characteristics of Tableau

• Some common features of Tableau are as follows:-
  • Tableau can run on both physical machines and virtual machines.
  • Tableau is a multi-process, multi-user, and multi-threaded system.
  • Tableau Desktop is a powerful data visualization tool.
  • Tableau is very secure and highly available.
  • Data Connection:
    • Tableau allows users to connect to a wide range of data sources including spreadsheets, databases, cloud services, and more.
    • This flexibility enables users to work with data from various sources seamlessly.
  • Visualization:
    • With Tableau, users can create a diverse range of visualizations such as bar charts, line graphs, scatter plots, heat maps, and more.
    • These visualizations can be customized extensively to suit specific needs and preferences.
    • It visualizes data in real time.
  • Drag-and-Drop Interface:
    • One of Tableau’s key features is its intuitive drag-and-drop interface.
    • Users can easily drag fields from their data source onto the canvas to create visualizations and build dashboards without the need for coding or complex queries.
  • Interactivity:
    • Tableau visualizations are highly interactive, allowing users to explore data dynamically.
    • In Tableau, viewers can drill down into details, filter data, and perform ad-hoc analysis directly within the visualizations.
  • Dashboards:
    • Tableau enables users to combine multiple visualizations into interactive dashboards that provide a comprehensive view of data and allow users to monitor key metrics, track performance, and gain insights at a glance.
  • Sharing and Collaboration:
    • Tableau provides various options for sharing and collaboration.
    • Users can publish dashboards to Tableau Server or Tableau Online, allowing others to access and interact with the visualizations.
    • Additionally, users can export visualizations to various formats for offline sharing.
  • Advanced Analytics:
    • Tableau offers advanced analytics capabilities such as forecasting, trend analysis, clustering, and statistical functions.
    • These features enable users to uncover deeper insights and make data-driven decisions.
  • Scalability:
    • Whether used by individuals, small teams, or large organizations, Tableau scales to accommodate different needs.
    • It can handle large datasets and complex analyses efficiently, making it suitable for various applications.

Architecture of Tableau

• Tableau software is designed to connect many data tiers. It can connect clients from Mobile, Web, and Desktop.
• Tableau provides such a powerful feature that requires unique architecture. Tableau has several components – 
  • Application server:
    • The application server is used to provide the authorizations and authentications.
    • It handles the permission and administration for mobile and web interfaces.
    • It gives a guarantee of security by recording each session ID on the Tableau Server.
    • The administrator is configuring the default timeout of the session in the server.
  • VizQL server:
    • VizQL server is used to convert the queries from the data source into visualizations.
    • Once the client request is forwarded to the VizQL process, it sends the query directly to the data source and retrieves information in the form of images. This visualization or image is presented to the users.
    • Tableau server creates a cache of visualization to reduce the load time. The cache can be shared between many users who have permission to view the visualization.
  • Data server:
    • A data server is used to store and manage the data from external data sources.
    • It is a central data management system.
    • It provides data security, metadata management, data connection, driver requirements, and data storage.
    • It stores the related details of data sets like calculated fields, metadata, groups, sets, and parameters.
    • The data source can extract the data as well as make live connections with external data sources.
    • The primary component of Tableau Architecture is the Data sources that can connect to it. Tableau can connect with multiple data sources. It can blend the data from various data sources.
    • Tableau can connect to an Excel file, a Database file, and a web application at the same time.
    • It can also make the relationship between different types of data sources.
  • Data connector:-
    • The Data Connectors provide an interface to connect external data sources with the Tableau Data Server.
    • Tableau has an in-built SQL/ODBC connector. This ODBC Connector can be connected to any database without using its native connector.
    • Tableau Desktop has an option to select both extract and live data. On the use basis, one can easily be switched between live and extracted data.
  • Real-time data or live connection: 

    • Tableau can be connected with real data by linking to the external database directly. It uses the infrastructure existing database by sending dynamic multidimensional expressions (MDX) and SQL statements. This feature can be used as a link between the live data and Tableau rather than importing the data. It makes an optimized and fast database system.
    • Mostly in other enterprises, the size of the database is large, and it is updated periodically. In these cases, Tableau works as a front-end visualization tool by connecting with the live data.

• • Extracted or in-memory data: 

    • Tableau is an option to extract the data from external data sources. We make a local copy in the form of a Tableau extract file. It can remove millions of records in the Tableau data engine with a single click.
    • Tableau’s data engine uses storage such as ROM, RAM, and cache memory to process and store data.
    • Using filters, Tableau can extract a few records from a large dataset. This improves performance, especially when we are working on massive datasets. Extracted data allows the users to visualize the data offline, without connecting to the data source.
  • Gateway:

    • The gateway directed the requests from users to Tableau components.
    • When the client sends a request, it is forwarded to the external load balancer for processing.
    • The gateway works as a distributor of processes to different components.
    • In case of the absence of an external load balancer, the gateway also works as a load balancer.
    • For a single server configuration, one gateway or primary server manages all the processes.
    • For multiple server configurations, one physical system works as a primary server, and others are used as worker servers.
    • Only one machine is used as a primary server in the Tableau Server environment.
  • Clients:
    • The visualizations and dashboards in the Tableau server can be edited and viewed using different clients.
    • Clients are web browsers, mobile applications, and Tableau Desktop.
      1. Web Browser: 

         1. Web browsers like Google Chrome, Safari, and Firefox support the Tableau server.
         2. The visualization and contents in the dashboard can be edited by using these web browsers.
      2. Mobile Application: 

         1. The dashboard from the server can be interactively visualized using a mobile application and browser.
         2. It is used to edit and view the contents of the workbook.
      3. Tableau Desktop: 
         1. Tableau Desktop is a business analytics tool.
         2. It is used to view, create, and publish the dashboard on the Tableau server.
         3. Users can access various data sources and build visualization on the Tableau desktop.