# How to setup Tableau Bridge for static files with Tableau Online

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2020-09-21
- **Format:** Video · 17 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data prep, Tool strategy
- **Tools:** Tableau (bridge, cloud, extensions)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/how-to-setup-tableau-bridge-for-static-files-with-tableau-online
- **Watch:** https://youtu.be/OBYDknMgTIk

I walk through installing and configuring Tableau Bridge on a computer to connect on-premise data, like Excel files, to Tableau Online. I demonstrate publishing an extract, setting up a refresh schedule, triggering manual refreshes, and reviewing the admin settings and bridge extract reports.

## Key takeaways

- Tableau Bridge is the mechanism for getting on-premise data into Tableau Online's AWS cloud, and you should keep its version in sync with your Online instance to avoid bugs
- After publishing an extract of a file-based data source, you set up the refresh schedule directly during publishing, choosing the computer and times when the machine will be on
- Bridge lives in the system toolbar rather than as a desktop app, and you can refresh data sources manually by hovering over the source and clicking the refresh icon
- The Site Status tab includes a Bridge Extract report showing success rates and durations, helping you separate actual refresh time from network travel time
- Running Bridge as a service rather than an application lets it run refreshes whenever the computer is on, even when no one is logged in

## Chapters

- 0:00 What Tableau Bridge does
- 0:53 Downloading and installing Bridge
- 2:22 Signing in and application vs service mode
- 3:37 Publishing an extract from Tableau Desktop
- 5:22 Setting up the refresh schedule
- 7:25 Admin bridge settings and load balancing
- 8:38 Triggering manual refreshes
- 11:10 Bridge extract report and site status
- 13:03 Documentation and security resources
- 14:42 Service mode and final thoughts

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/how-to-setup-tableau-bridge-for-static-files-with-tableau-online

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just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena