Video | Tableau | Data prep | Tool strategy | Analytics

Publishing data sources to Tableau Server & Tableau Online: Tableau Tutorial for Beginners:

If you want to share a data source properly, you need to publish it to the server, and there are a few quirks worth knowing before you do.

  • Publishing a data source centralises database access, governance and driver management, lets teams collaborate on a shared source and adds mobility through web authoring.
  • A published live connection saves connection details (a TDS) to the server, so every interaction calls the database, while an extract is a snapshot that needs a refresh schedule set up on the server.
  • Authentication can either prompt each user for credentials or embed a password, and only extracts can be set to allow refreshes (which is where the server refresh schedule comes from).
  • Overwriting a published data source wipes any field-level metadata or descriptions you previously added on the server, so re-apply them after each publish.
  • You can switch a workbook between a published source and a local copy using 'create local copy' and 'replace data source', but taking extracts of extracts quickly makes it hard to track what you're actually connected to.

Publishing data sources to Tableau Online or Tableau Server is integral to maintaining a single source for your data. Publishing also enables sharing data among colleagues; including those who don’t use Tableau Desktop but have permission to edit workbooks in the web editing environment.0:00 Intro0:43 The setup for this video1:56 Why used published data sources?4:15 Publishing up a live connection to Tableau Server & Tableau Online7:12 The publish data source dialog and settings12:02 Finishing off the configuration on the web and using the data source17:04 Publishing without embedded credentials19:22 Creating a local copy of the published data source25:21 Datasource certification26:54 Extracting a published data source