How to use Collections: New in Tableau 2021.2

0:00Hey, it's Tim here. In this video I'm going

0:01to be touching on a new feature in 2021.2,

0:04which is the Collections. Now, Collections

0:06have actually been in an open public beta

0:09for a while

0:09now, but they've actually taken on a lot of

0:11feedback from users over the last few

0:14months,

0:14and they've incorporated it into what they

0:16're sort of doing as their first official

0:18release,

0:18which is what we have for us in 2021.2. Now

0:21, what I'm going to do in this video is show

0:23you how to

0:24find Collections, how to create them, add

0:26items to them, remove items from

0:28Collections, and then

0:30lastly I'm going to show you how

0:31permissions work with Collections. It's

0:33actually quite a smart way

0:34of working with them, it's very well

0:35thought through, so I'll go through that at

0:37the very end.

0:38So I'm going to put timestamps in the video

0:40so you can access all of that very easily,

0:42but let's get stuck in. So the first thing

0:44to bear in mind is that, you know, in 2021.

0:472 they've

0:48actually added quite a lot of new asset

0:49types, so we've got lenses that are being

0:52added, and now we

0:53have something called Collections, and

0:55Collections get their own dedicated space

0:57here on the left

0:58hand side. I think this is quite smart

0:59because what Tableau is starting to realize

1:01is that,

1:02listen, every single analyst has their own

1:04world, and essentially we want to be able

1:06to

1:07access our own version of the world

1:09whenever we go to Tableau Server.

1:11Previously you went to Tableau

1:12Server and you saw what whatever was made

1:14for everyone, you sort of had no customized

1:17view,

1:17so Collections are sort of the first way to

1:20do that. So now if I hit Collections here,

1:23you'll

1:23see that I have no Collections set up, so

1:24it's completely banked. So we're going to

1:26go ahead

1:26and create a new one and just show you how

1:28this works. I'm going to go ahead and

1:29create a new

1:30collection just by clicking the new

1:31collection option, and the first thing you

1:33do is you see

1:33it just creates a collection straight away

1:35and it names it after me by default, so

1:37that's really

1:38sort of important, and the thing is is they

1:40're private by default, I'll come to that in

1:42a second,

1:43but essentially here's the first hint Table

1:45au is letting you create your own little

1:47world in this,

1:48and the sort of the big signal here is that

1:50this is private. You can obviously star it

1:53so it's in

1:53your favorites of the top right hand side

1:55menu if you want to do that, you can share

1:57your collections,

1:57I'll come to that in a second, and you get

1:59these other sort of controls you can share,

2:01you can see

2:02the details, rename it, permissions, change

2:04who the owner is, all of that great stuff.

2:07Now you can

2:07also give it a description, I'll just do

2:10that here, and you'll see here that once I

2:12give it a

2:13description, I save that, that's now

2:15persisted, and you can go in and update

2:16that and that's sort

2:17of nice to have, but essentially you're

2:19sort of creating this space, so you've got

2:21to really think

2:21about what goes into that description. Now

2:24the next thing is what goes into a

2:25collection, so

2:26basically the best way to think about

2:29collections is tags, but like a lot better,

2:32just monumentally

2:34much better. So tags have actually always

2:36existed in tabla, I'm not going to sort of

2:37break away and

2:38show you what those are, but essentially

2:40you've always been able to use tags to

2:42classify content,

2:43and the great thing about tags is they've

2:45existed across all asset types, so I can

2:47tag a workbook,

2:48I can tag a data source, I can tag a

2:50project, all of those things have sort of

2:52been able to be

2:53tagged, and now what you can do with

2:55collections is essentially do the same

2:57thing, but instead of

2:58using tags which sort of work like hashtags

3:00, instead you're creating a space which

3:02allows

3:02you to sort of bring content from lots of

3:04different places. So the big hint here is

3:07that

3:07they want you to go and explore content to

3:09bring it in, so it's sort of unintuitive,

3:11it'd be great

3:12to have like a way of adding content in

3:14here, but the button here just basically

3:16sends you to the

3:17explore tab, the explore tab is exactly the

3:19same as this one, so essentially just go on

3:22to server

3:22anywhere and go find the content that you

3:24really want to add to your collection. So

3:27if you go here

3:28to the 2021.2, I can add this project to my

3:31collection, so I'm just going to go click

3:34on

3:34that and you'll see that it looks for the

3:36server and sees what collections are

3:38available, and if

3:38I don't find the one that I like, I can

3:40actually go ahead and create a new one

3:42right here, I'll

3:43call this test collection, and you'll see

3:45that I think it actually puts that content

3:47straight into

3:48that collection, so you'll see that it's

3:50automatically ticked and it tells me that

3:52this

3:52is new, the one that I've just created, but

3:54actually I'm going to choose this one as

3:56well,

3:57so you can put things in multiple

3:58collections, so this is where things get

4:01really cool because

4:02if you've got something that's super

4:03important, you can put it in multiple

4:05collections and just

4:06send the link to the collection to one

4:08people and then every time you add things

4:10into the collection,

4:11everything's just going to be in one place,

4:13so that's a really sort of nice quality of

4:14life

4:15improvement. You can also search this if I

4:17search Tim, it obviously will search sort

4:20of just my

4:21content, but because there's such little

4:22content on here, it sort of doesn't work,

4:24if I search

4:25tests you'll see that works, the reason Tim

4:27came up there is because I created both of

4:29these,

4:29so that's why it's coming up twice there,

4:31so let's go ahead and just tick both of

4:33these collections

4:34and just click add, we'll add the contents

4:35of the collection and there you go, we've

4:37added a project

4:38to a collection, and I'm going to go back

4:40into the explore tab, I'll go back into

4:432021.2 and you'll

4:44see that I have a bunch of different things

4:46here, so let's go to this list view, so as

4:48you can see

4:49here I have a range of different things and

4:51what is interesting here is you can't add a

4:53lens to a

4:54collection, but you can add some of these

4:56other things, so if I tick these two here,

4:58you go to

4:58actions, you can see that I get the option

5:00to add a collection, but if I tick the lens

5:02you'll see

5:03that that does that option to add

5:05collections actually disappears, so not

5:07everything can go

5:08into collection, but most things can go

5:10into collection, so now that we've ticked

5:12those two,

5:12let's go ahead and add those to a

5:14collection. Now the last thing I want to

5:16add to my collection is a

5:18prep flow, because of course Tableau prep

5:20is another sort of capability, so I'd love

5:22to be

5:23able to add my flows to this, so let's go

5:25back to the explore tab and let's go to my

5:28little drop-down

5:28that shows me all the different kinds of

5:30content that I have, so I've got flows here

5:33, so let's go

5:33into the flows and let's add a couple of

5:35these, notice how some of these are still

5:37in the draft

5:38stage, I never finished them, so I'll go

5:40ahead and add all of them to my collection

5:43again, so

5:44you can start to see the power of this, you

5:46know if you're using Tableau server every

5:48single day

5:49and you can actually go and create your own

5:50little sort of collection and make it

5:52really useful,

5:53and then if that collection is useful for

5:55people you can obviously go and add more.

5:58Now I'm able

5:59to add items to one collection, I think it

6:01's because these are in draft, so let's try

6:04that again,

6:05I think that's probably the case, I think I

6:07was maybe pushing my luck too much, yeah

6:09that's correct

6:09so I wasn't able to add the drafts to my

6:11collection, but I was able to add the

6:14finished flow to my

6:15collection, so that's all good. Let's go in

6:17here and let's look at something else, let

6:19's see what

6:20else we can add, let's add a metric to our

6:22collection, so you'll see here we have a

6:24bunch

6:24of different metrics, I'll add some of my

6:26favorite metrics, I'll go ahead and add it

6:28to my collection,

6:29so you can start to see here the way I'm

6:31doing this is I'm going to the asset and I

6:33'm adding

6:33them to my collection, I don't have to do

6:35it using this grouped method, I can go to

6:37any one of these,

6:38whatever view you have, so I can hit these

6:40three dots and you'll see that I can add it

6:42to a

6:42collection there, if I'm in grid view, some

6:45of you might be using the grid view

6:46predominantly instead

6:47of the list view, then again you can add to

6:50collections just like that and in this case

6:52everything here should already be added,

6:54but if it's not been added then you'll see

6:56that there.

6:57Now in this little toast menu that appears

6:59in green, you do get a link to go to the

7:01collection

7:02once you've added something there, so if

7:04you go ahead to the collection you'll see

7:06that now my

7:06collection is pretty busy and I've got a

7:08bunch of different things, I've got my flow

7:10, I've got my

7:10metric, I've got my workbook, everything

7:13here is really nicely laid out. Now I was

7:15sort of hoping

7:16we get a bit more control to customize this

7:20, use metrics to you know have big big ass

7:23numbers,

7:23bands on the top and dashboards below and

7:26to create some context we saw some really

7:29nice

7:29prototypes of this at Tableau conference

7:31last year, I'll try and put that up on

7:32screen,

7:33but unfortunately we don't have that in

7:34this first release, maybe that's where

7:36Tableau is heading,

7:37but nevertheless whether you're in list

7:39view or grid view this is a really nice way

7:41of collecting

7:42all of your content in one place. So I've

7:43shown you how to find the collections, I've

7:46shown you

7:46how to create one, I've shown you how to

7:48add content to the collection, now I'm

7:50going to show

7:50you how to remove content from the

7:52collection. So what you can do is you can

7:54just take any of these

7:55three once you're in here and actually you

7:57can just go here to the actions and remove

7:59them from

7:59the collection, so this is by far the

8:01easiest way to do this and when you remove

8:03something from a

8:04collection it's again instantaneous and the

8:06page refreshes and boom you've removed them

8:09, super

8:09super simple. Now the final thing to look

8:11at is of course permissions, now what

8:14collections don't do

8:15is they don't break the permissions model

8:18in Tableau okay, so by virtue any

8:20collection that's

8:21created is by default private to the person

8:24who created them, so what has to happen is

8:27that person

8:28has to share them for them to be visible to

8:30other people, so if I go in here and I

8:32share stuff and I

8:32just say send it to my other version of

8:36myself and I'll say hey one access and I

8:39hit share,

8:40what I've essentially done there is sent

8:43off the link but what I haven't done is

8:45grant the

8:46permissions and so one nice thing with the

8:47collections is if you do share something

8:49with

8:49someone it automatically pops up the

8:51permissions window so you can grant that

8:53person permission, so

8:55now that I've shared it with the user I'm

8:57going to give them access to actually look

8:59at the thing, so

9:00the sharing interface is just sending them

9:02a link and then the permissions interface

9:04that comes up

9:04afterwards is actually giving them access

9:07to see the collection. Now if we go into a

9:09little bit

9:10more detail you'll notice that the little

9:12private icon has disappeared because I've

9:14shared it with

9:14someone it's no longer private so now that

9:17's gone out to the world it's no longer

9:19private, I can go

9:20to these three dots and go down here to

9:21permissions and manage my permission so I

9:24can see essentially

9:25what's going on, so let's go ahead and

9:26click in permissions box and see what's

9:28going on, so you

9:29can see here that I've given view access to

9:32one other person okay and the other version

9:35of myself

9:35hasn't actually logged in and sort of

9:37looked at the permissions and accepted the

9:39link so

9:39I think that's why it's not showing up here

9:42but I can of course add different people, I

9:44can add

9:44groups to my permissions and I can go and

9:47say view and that's really the only

9:49permission here that

9:50can only view permissions. Now you're

9:52probably wondering well what happens if I

9:54put something

9:55in a collection that someone doesn't have

9:58access to in that object's owner's

10:00permission, they won't

10:01see it so it's super simple if you don't

10:03have access to see something and it gets

10:05added to

10:06a collection that you have access to you

10:07just won't see it, it just won't appear,

10:09that's a

10:10really important dynamic to be aware of

10:12that's kind of cool though because you can

10:14sort of create

10:14these collections which are focused on a

10:18project so you for example in fast moving

10:21consumer goods it's sometimes important for

10:23finance and sales to have access to the

10:25same

10:25content but to see slightly different

10:27things. What you could do here is create a

10:29collection

10:30for the business area they're managing let

10:32's take for example biscuits and then in

10:35that collection

10:36you could have content for finance people,

10:38content for sales people in those

10:40individual

10:41workbooks manage those permissions so they

10:43can only see their respective things but

10:45share one

10:46collection to that group of people so you

10:48give everyone one link but you're actually

10:50managing

10:51the permissions of what they see once they

10:53get there in the respective content which

10:56just makes

10:56things so much better it makes having

10:58duplicate versions of content everywhere

11:00sort of not

11:01necessary and it also makes permissioning

11:03more enjoyable because you now have another

11:05dynamic

11:06that you can use to separate out content so

11:08that's pretty much collections in a

11:10nutshell I've covered

11:11permissions I've shown you how to create

11:14them I've shown you how to you know set

11:16them up last thing I

11:17can show you is how to delete collections

11:19so of course if you go to these three dots

11:21and you go

11:21to delete and you get that option now this

11:23is a pretty nuclear thing so be really

11:25careful before

11:26you do that and the other thing you can do

11:28is you can change who the owner is so I

11:30could for example

11:31give someone else the ability to manage

11:33this permission this is handy if you're

11:35moving on and

11:35you want to give stewardship to someone

11:37else or you've been promoted and you want

11:38to give it to

11:39someone else you want them to be able to

11:41manage it that's that's perfectly sort of a

11:43possible thing

11:44but nevertheless I'm going to go ahead and

11:46delete this and just hit delete when we

11:48delete the

11:48collection everything that goes where it

11:50goes but the content stays exactly where it

11:52was so now you

11:53see here I'm back to square one remember

11:55earlier on I created a test collection

11:58which had a piece

11:59of content that was actually in two

12:01collections that's still here in this case

12:02it's a project

12:03that's here in my collection and so now I'm

12:06able to sort of browse that and just get on

12:08with my

12:09work as as I should be able to so that's

12:11pretty much collections in a nutshell there

12:14's plenty of

12:14options and capabilities with this I think

12:16this will be a really really cool feature I

12:18think it'll

12:18be a really nice additional thing to see it

12:21's interesting that it gets its own little

12:24sort of

12:24space here and projects for example don't

12:27get any sort of love in this respect so I'm

12:29interested to

12:30see how tabla really developed this further

12:32I've heard of the concept especially at

12:34conference of

12:35spaces I'd love this to become sort of more

12:38personal and sort of more interesting for

12:40people

12:40to use so that when you log into tablo

12:43server you can go out here and just set

12:45this particular

12:46collection as your own start page rather

12:48than having to set one start page for

12:50absolutely ever

12:52okay thanks for watching I hope you've

12:54enjoyed this check out all the other videos

12:56on 2021.2

12:57and I hope you're enjoying the content if

12:58there's a video about something you'd like

13:00me to make that

13:01isn't about tablo or even 2021.2 then

13:04please get in touch otherwise I'll catch

13:06you in the next video

13:07and yeah I'll catch you later