OneDrive and Sharepoint Connector - New in Tableau 2022.2

0:00In 2.2, Tableau have made a new connector

0:03for OneDrive and SharePoint into one

0:05connector.

0:05Essentially it allows you to connect to

0:07files in OneDrive and simultaneously

0:09connect to

0:10files in SharePoint libraries. Let's get

0:12stuck in. So we're here in Tableau, you

0:14just need to go over

0:15to the left hand side, just over here where

0:17it says more and when you connect to a

0:19connector,

0:20essentially what happens is essentially

0:22Tableau remembers this and it brings it

0:24into your most

0:24recently connected connector. So you can

0:26actually see the connector is already there

0:28because I was

0:29practicing for this demo, but in essence if

0:31you don't have that in this list here on

0:33the left hand

0:33side, what you can do is you can open up

0:35this more connector. You can see all the

0:37connectors

0:37that Tableau can connect to or the

0:39databases that it can connect to and just

0:42over here on the top

0:43you can see OneDrive SharePoint online is a

0:44file there and you've also got the previous

0:46one which

0:47was just OneDrive. We'll actually take a

0:48look at both of these and sort of try and

0:50see the

0:50difference. So first let's connect to what

0:53the OneDrive connector used to do before.

0:55So let's

0:55go ahead and connect to that. You'll see

0:57that it throws me over to the browser. I

0:58sign into my

0:59SharePoint OneDrive or Microsoft account

1:02and once that's done I can actually go back

1:05to Tableau

1:06just over here and you can see that it

1:08shows me a file that's in my OneDrive

1:09folder. Now this is the

1:10only file I have in my OneDrive folder. I

1:12wanted to make it super simple just so you

1:14could see this.

1:15I've actually used this in another video in

1:17this particular release. Now if we hit

1:19cancel and we

1:20go back to this view, we can now go to the

1:21SharePoint lists connector and you can see

1:23here

1:24that it's not quite the same. You can't

1:26connect to files in document libraries. You

1:29see to use

1:30this connector you need to download and

1:31install a driver first which is already a

1:33frictional sort of

1:34point of interaction with the software. So

1:37instead what you can do is you can just go

1:39over here to

1:40the OneDrive and SharePoint online

1:41connector. It does the same thing. It

1:43throws you to the

1:43Microsoft authentication. You can go ahead

1:46and connect to that and then when we go

1:47back to Tableau

1:48let's just go back over here. You get the

1:50same looking interface except for this time

1:53alongside

1:53OneDrive we actually have a couple of new

1:56areas just here. So you can see here that

1:58we also have

1:59the ability to look at files that are

2:01shared with you in OneDrive and we have the

2:03SharePoint sites

2:04capabilities here. So if I go over to that

2:06you'll see that I have a list of SharePoint

2:08sites that I

2:09have access to. I can browse this. I can

2:11look around. You can see there's a couple

2:13that are

2:13most recently modified. These are ones that

2:15I actually created in a developer account.

2:17So let me

2:18go ahead and sort that to these two. You

2:19can see there's a Tableau Tim SharePoint

2:21site. So let's go

2:22into that. You'll see there's a documents

2:24folder and boom we have the CSV files. Now

2:27I found a

2:27little issue with CSV files. It's actually

2:29worth mentioning this. If I go ahead and

2:31connect to my

2:32let's connect to this particular one. I

2:33know this is a good example. If I go ahead

2:35and connect to

2:36the CSV files essentially don't carry any

2:39information about the file. It's just

2:41basically

2:42text in a file. That's why it's called

2:44comma separated values and when we connect

2:46to it in

2:47Tableau you can see that we have the column

2:49headers on the first row but there is no

2:51capability at

2:51least in the desktop interface to say grab

2:55the column names from the first row. Unless

2:58I'm missing

2:59something, I'm a pretty familiar user of

3:01Tableau, I couldn't find any way of

3:04basically telling Tableau

3:05hey use this first row as column. So that

3:07would drive me nuts. What this essentially

3:10means is if

3:10you're going to connect to CSV files you're

3:12going to need to do some data prep and

3:13something like

3:14Tableau prep. Put it into server and get

3:16that fixed. Now that's not ideal but when

3:18you connect

3:19to excel files that's obviously not an

3:21issue because excels files do specify the

3:24headers and

3:24columns because of the way they work. So

3:26that's just something to be aware of. CSV

3:28files might be

3:29a pain point whilst they either fix this,

3:31it might be a bug, it might be an issue or

3:33they add the

3:34functionality to support pulling the column

3:36headers out of this file and working with

3:38it. Now the fix

3:39to this is actually quite simple. You can

3:41just go ahead and rename all of these

3:42fields. In fact if

3:43you go over here to the little gears you

3:48can see this capability to show aliases and

3:51hidden fields.

3:52And over here on the left hand side you've

3:54also got the ability to just go in and

3:55click on any

3:56one of these and you can just go ahead and

3:58rename them. So you might have to sit here,

4:00spend a little

4:00bit of time renaming things, it might take

4:02a little while. But then the downside of

4:04that is

4:04when this does get fixed you've already

4:06gone through and renamed all the columns to

4:08what they

4:09should have been in the first place. So do

4:11make sure you rename them exactly as they

4:12are in the

4:13file. So that's one particular example. Let

4:15's go ahead and connect to another example.

4:17This time

4:18we'll connect to an excel file. Every time

4:21you do this it authenticates you into the

4:24OneDrive.

4:25Essentially think of each file as a

4:26different connection. So we'll go back into

4:28our SharePoint

4:29site. Now I'm going to go into a different

4:31site. This time I'm going to go to the

4:32landing

4:33where I have a folder called test documents

4:35and you can see here I have the beta book

4:37shop.xlsx.

4:38This is a demo file created by Tableau. Hit

4:41connect and when we do that it brings in a

4:44second

4:44connection. So here I'm connected twice to

4:46different SharePoint sites bringing them

4:49together

4:49and over on the left hand side you can of

4:51course see the information that I'm looking

4:53for. If I go

4:54ahead and preview this file you can see the

4:56column headers coming absolutely fine and I

4:58can go ahead

4:58and build my data model as I would have

5:01done with that. So the real key thing here

5:03is sort of

5:04nuance. The first thing is SharePoint, One

5:06Drive files, everything can be done through

5:08one connector

5:09now which is great. The second thing is you

5:12can also bring in files from document

5:14libraries inside

5:15of SharePoint and work with them here but

5:17there's also that catch of that csv. Now

5:19this is not just

5:20applicable in Tableau desktop. If I head

5:22over to Tableau prep let's go over to this

5:24window which

5:25is Tableau prep. I'll go ahead connect to

5:27the OneDrive connector. Now here I do have

5:30to go

5:31looking for it a little bit. Let's just go

5:32to the OneDrive and SharePoint online

5:34connector.

5:35When we do that exactly the same

5:36authentication this might get tiring if you

5:37have something like

5:38single sign-on you'll probably skip past

5:40that page it'll be really really smooth but

5:43because I don't

5:43I'm just using a SharePoint 365 developer

5:46account I have to log in manually each time

5:48. Again when we

5:49get to prep you see this interface where

5:51you can see the one file I've got in One

5:53Drive. I don't

5:53have anything shared with me because I'm in

5:55a developer account with just myself so

5:56that would

5:57be weird to share stuff with myself but of

5:59course the SharePoint science turn up here

6:00as well. I can

6:01go to the same landing folder and go to

6:03test documents this time I'll connect to

6:06that csv file

6:06click connect and once we've done this you

6:09can just start working with the file as you

6:11would have

6:11done anyway and of course here we do have

6:13to go and rename everything as well and

6:15make sure

6:16everything works. So you know it's kind of

6:19a great addition. I think a lot of people

6:22on Twitter

6:23were saying this is a massive life quality

6:25of life improvement if you use OneDrive and

6:28SharePoint and

6:28you just want to work with both of these

6:29files. I think it does make it easy it's

6:31always better if

6:32you've got one connector that does

6:33everything that's supposed to in one place

6:35so that's going

6:36to be a really nice addition to 22.2.

6:38Before I hop off I actually forgot to show

6:40you how to try this

6:41for yourself essentially obviously you need

6:43access to Tableau that's a given but what I

6:45did is I went

6:46to the Microsoft 365 developer program and

6:49it turns out they actually give you 90 days

6:51of access

6:52to the 365 developer setup and that

6:54essentially creates an administrator

6:57account for you and

6:58creates some fake users, an email account,

7:01Microsoft teams and SharePoint capabilities

7:03.

7:04Now when you create this it takes a little

7:06while so give it a couple of hours for

7:07everything to

7:08sync up and work and show up but once you

7:10've done that everything will work swimming

7:12ly you can

7:12create a couple of new SharePoint libraries

7:15and sites and once you've done all of that

7:17when you

7:17go to Office 365 login as yourself you can

7:20of course go to SharePoint and access all

7:22the

7:22different places you can see here I've got

7:24Tableau Tim and the landing on the bottom

7:26here and I just

7:27went ahead and messed around I have no clue

7:28what I'm doing with SharePoint but maybe

7:30you do if

7:31you're trying to figure out how to use

7:32SharePoint work better with SharePoint this

7:34is how you can do

7:35that and get stuck in so that that's how I

7:37did this demo that's how I got access to

7:39SharePoint

7:40even though I didn't pay a single penny for

7:41it so if you want to learn how to use Share

7:43Point this is

7:44probably a great way to do that I'd love to

7:46know why this is a big quality of life

7:48improvement if

7:49it is for you let me know in the comments

7:50below I don't often work with Office 365 it

7:53's just not

7:53something that kind of turns up in my field

7:55of work typically it's Google or typically

7:57we work

7:58on the databases so if this is a big change

7:59for you let me know in the comments let me

8:01know what

8:02you think about this feature and I'll catch

8:04you in the next video thanks for watching

8:07see you soon

8:07you

8:10[ Silence ]