Stale content admin view improvements & the Metadata API: Tableau Server & Tableau Online

0:00Hey, it's Tim here.

0:01In today's video, I'm going to be showing

0:03you how to tag

0:04stale or old content on Tableau Server and

0:06Tableau Online.

0:08This is a new feature in 2020.3.

0:11You were previously able to look at stale

0:13content,

0:13but you weren't able to tag it and then

0:15take action on it.

0:16In this video, I'm going to show you how to

0:18do exactly that.

0:19Then at the very end, for admins out there,

0:21I'm going to show you how to use

0:22the data management add-on to use

0:25the metadata API to basically query that

0:27stale content,

0:28find who the owners are,

0:30and find where those workbooks and

0:31projects are that contain these assets.

0:33Let's get stuck in. I'm going to

0:36go ahead to the bottom left here.

0:37Let me just show you where that is.

0:38I'm going to go ahead to the site status

0:40icon.

0:41If I click on the site status,

0:42you'll see that you get this list of dash

0:45boards that

0:46Tableau have pre-built into Tableau Online

0:48or if you're using Tableau Server, Tableau

0:50Server.

0:50I'm going to go ahead and go to the stale

0:52content report.

0:53This is just here at the bottom.

0:55Let's go ahead and look at that.

0:57When we click on that,

0:58it takes a little while because

1:00fundamentally what's going on is

1:01Tableau's querying a Postgres database in

1:04real-time.

1:04It's actually requesting the data from the

1:06database.

1:06For Tableau Online, that's actually shared

1:09across a lot of users.

1:10Now, you see here that I don't have any

1:13style content.

1:13The main reason is this is my test instance

1:16of Tableau Online.

1:17It's only me using it,

1:19and so a lot of the content is created by

1:20me fairly recently.

1:22Also, I access it a lot because I've only

1:24got a few workbooks.

1:25If I go to the top right here where you'll

1:27see this hamburger menu,

1:28this is called hamburger menus in design.

1:30Let's go ahead and click on that.

1:32You'll see that the filters are loaded.

1:33The key thing here is the stale threshold

1:35that you can manually set.

1:37Let me just circle that for you here.

1:38You can see that it's right there and you

1:40can change that from

1:4145 days to a value that better represents

1:43what you're looking at.

1:44Let's go ahead and I'm going to set this

1:47to really low number because it's just me

1:48on the server.

1:49I think looking for stuff I haven't

1:51touched in the last two weeks is probably

1:53more realistic.

1:54This is the picture that you get.

1:56You actually tend to have this proportion

1:58of

1:58stale content on Tableau Server.

2:00The real reason stale content is an issue

2:03is

2:03because if people aren't looking at it,

2:05then it's potentially taking up resources

2:07and time in

2:08terms of data refresh extracts and it's

2:11also taking up a lot of space in terms of

2:13storage space on your server.

2:14Ideally, you want to basically isolate the

2:16stale content,

2:17look at the extract jobs that are set up,

2:19that connect to these style content,

2:21and then reach out to those people and say,

2:23"Hey,

2:23listen, if you're not using this content,

2:25let's try and archive it and stop

2:27the extract refreshes so that they don't

2:29take up resources on your server."

2:31Now, previously, what you couldn't do is

2:35tag content in this view.

2:36The key thing to notice here is that in the

2:39bottom right-hand side,

2:40let me just circle this for you,

2:41we have a new section and this is a really

2:44nice feature.

2:45Essentially, what it allows you to do is if

2:47I select some contents,

2:48let's select the Volvo Race.

2:49I'm going to hold Command because I'm on a

2:51Mac and

2:52Superstore Data Source, this regional work

2:54book,

2:55and one more, let's select a couple more.

2:58We've selected three or four bits of

2:59content.

3:00What I could actually do is deselect this

3:03one because it's

3:03tagging it for me here in terms of color.

3:06I've selected the three items that I'd like

3:08to tag,

3:09and you'll see here on the right-hand side

3:10that it's saying that I've got four work

3:12books selected,

3:14and I haven't got anything else.

3:15Now, if I select a data source,

3:17let's go ahead and do that just for demo

3:19sake.

3:19Let's go ahead and select this one.

3:21You'll see that it says four workbooks and

3:23one data source.

3:24Now we're ready to tag the content.

3:26Let's go ahead and hit "Tag Objects".

3:28What it's done is it set up the tags and

3:30you

3:30won't see anything change on this

3:32particular page.

3:33What we need to do is go back to

3:35the Explore page and find those tags.

3:38Let's go ahead and do that. Let's go back

3:40to

3:40the Site Status and go back to Explore.

3:42Now, when you go to the Explore menu,

3:44you're looking at both a mix of content.

3:46Sometimes it's projects, sometimes it's

3:47workbooks.

3:48If you click on this drop-down here,

3:50you'll see the different types of contents

3:51you can see.

3:52Of course, flows are a new addition in

3:54the most recent releases of Tableau.

3:57But the key thing here is I have stale

3:59content

3:59across workbooks and data sources.

4:02How do you find them? Well, let's go to the

4:04workbooks page.

4:05On the right-hand side, if you can't see

4:07this,

4:08you just need to click on this little

4:10filter icon on

4:10the right-hand side and you'll see this

4:13filter option open up.

4:14If I click on the "Tag" section,

4:16you'll see that stale content is now there.

4:18Now, I've got three items here,

4:21and don't forget these are just workbooks.

4:22If I click on that stale content,

4:24you'll see that this is now narrowed down

4:27to just workbooks that are marked as stale.

4:30If I go back and I go to Data Sources,

4:32you'll see that the stale content tag

4:35remains and I can still see

4:37my stale data source in this particular

4:39case.

4:40It's essentially a data source that's not

4:41been

4:41used by anyone if we were to assume that.

4:44This is great, but the key thing is,

4:47you typically want to act on this data.

4:49It's actually not a great interface here to

4:51be working with this.

4:52This is why I want to show you some of

4:54the powerful capability in the data

4:56management add-on,

4:57where you're actually able to query

4:58the data using the metadata API.

5:01Now, Tableau give you a basic interface to

5:03do this,

5:04and you can find that here in the section

5:06on the left called External Assets.

5:08If I go ahead and click on that,

5:10you'll get this view which loads basically

5:12all the assets,

5:13databases, and files, workbooks,

5:15anything that's on the Tableau server,

5:17all the metadata is held in this particular

5:19place.

5:20On the very top right-hand side,

5:22you'll see here that you can query the

5:23metadata.

5:24So this is the information about your data.

5:26Let's go ahead and click on that.

5:28It opens this interface which is called

5:30GraphQL.

5:31Now, the key thing to know about GraphQL is

5:33it's not

5:34intended to be an interface that you use

5:36for everyday use.

5:37It's just supposed to allow you to see

5:38what information you can get hold of,

5:40and it gives you a very basic interface to

5:42query information.

5:44If you look here on the left,

5:45you can see that it's already got a query

5:47built up,

5:47and this essentially shows you

5:48the structure of how this works.

5:50If I go ahead and hit Run,

5:52you'll see that it loads all the workbooks,

5:53and their names, and their IDs, and if they

5:55have any tags.

5:56And you can see here that I have

5:58the tag stale content available to me.

6:00What I'd like to do is actually query Table

6:03au

6:03and ask it to only return me the workbooks

6:05and published data sources that are tagged

6:08as stale.

6:09So I'm gonna show you how to build this

6:11from scratch.

6:12If by any chance you're interested

6:13in learning more about this,

6:14if you just search Meta Data API,

6:19query, and GraphQL.

6:23I'm sort of adding everything under the sun

6:25here.

6:26It's actually GraphQL, and it's Tableau.

6:28And this should get you the Meta Data API

6:32page here,

6:33and you get the resources that you need.

6:35So you can actually look at this

6:37and see how to use the API to query your

6:39own data,

6:39how to structure the data,

6:41how to make use of that using the REST API,

6:44okay?

6:44So let's go back to Tableau,

6:45and let's start actually building our own

6:47query.

6:47I'm gonna go ahead and delete this

6:49and just start from scratch.

6:51So the key thing you need to do

6:52is just basically open the tag.

6:54I'm just gonna try and increase the font

6:56here

6:56so we can get more on the page.

6:58And the key thing I'd like to do

7:00is actually start by looking for tags in

7:01the first place.

7:02So let's just go ahead and type tags.

7:04Now, if I just run this query now with

7:07nothing specified,

7:08it's just gonna return the ID

7:09of the only tag that we have in the data

7:11sources,

7:12'cause we only have the one tag for style

7:14content.

7:14And you'll see that it's actually added the

7:17ID itself.

7:17The ID is useful if in case you wanna add

7:20this

7:20to another data source where you can then

7:22query this back

7:23and reference it and match it.

7:25Now, the thing it's really missing is the

7:26name.

7:26So if I just hit an Enter and enter a new

7:29line,

7:29if I just type in name and then hit Run

7:32again,

7:32you'll see that I now get the tag

7:34appropriately set.

7:36Now, this is great,

7:37and it's telling me we have a tag with

7:40style content,

7:41but we need to know the information

7:43that sits underneath it.

7:44So the great thing about this API

7:45is you can just add those queries into your

7:48query.

7:48So let's type in workbook.

7:50And if I hit workbooks and just hit Enter

7:52and Run again,

7:53you'll see that it actually returns

7:55the three workbooks marked as style content

7:58, which is great.

7:58So I'm now starting to see some information

8:01about each tag and the information that's

8:04held about them.

8:05I can query the workbooks information

8:08and ask for the name of the workbook.

8:09I can also ask what project it's in.

8:12And you can see it's auto-completing this

8:13for me.

8:14I'm not having to sort of work too hard

8:16to know what these terms are.

8:18And if I hit Run,

8:19you now get the different bits of

8:21information.

8:22Now, the other thing to note

8:23is that I'm only seeing three key assets

8:25here.

8:25I'm seeing this workbook here,

8:27this workbook here, and this one here.

8:29But we also have a published data source.

8:31So all I need to do is just enter a new

8:33line here

8:33and just type in published data sources,

8:36hit Run again,

8:37and you'll see that it now returns one data

8:40source

8:41and it's added the ID there for me.

8:42So again, I can say name, owner.

8:46The great thing about this query

8:49is you can actually add more and more

8:50detail

8:51to this query as you go along.

8:52Bear in mind that it actually takes a

8:55little bit longer

8:56to do each query.

8:57So you don't want to go crazy

8:58and try and load every bit of information.

9:00You just need to basically query the exact

9:02thing you need.

9:03Go ahead and hit Run, and there we go.

9:04We have a nice query that's now showing us

9:08all the data sources and workbooks

9:10that have been tagged as stale content.

9:12Now, if you had the API here,

9:13what you could then do is you could ping

9:15these users.

9:16You can add something like the email for

9:19this, okay?

9:20So I'm not gonna enter that

9:21'cause then you'll see my email,

9:22but you could add the email for the users

9:24if you're working internally,

9:26and you can add a bit of other information.

9:27Like you can add upstream data sources.

9:29So if I go back here and look

9:33at the published data sources here,

9:35we've got the ID, the name, the owner,

9:37but what I could do is say upstream work

9:41books,

9:42if I can just find that option.

9:44Upstream tables.

9:46I think I should actually know.

9:47This is downstream, sorry, downstream work

9:49books.

9:50So the data source is at the top,

9:52and downstream is essentially, from that

9:54point,

9:54what else is going to be used.

9:56So the downstream workbooks is there,

9:59and then what we can do is we can, again,

10:01open this up,

10:02and we can say ID, name,

10:06and you can see how this query now really

10:08starts

10:09to become really rich

10:10because I'm not just querying information.

10:12I'm actually adding lots of context

10:15and making this really, really flexible way

10:18of finding the information that I need.

10:20Okay, so just before we finish this video,

10:22there is one thing to note.

10:23I only had one tag on my Tableau server,

10:26but if I had multiple tags,

10:28this tag search here would actually return

10:31all the tags

10:33that I have, and if I just wanted this list

10:35,

10:35this isn't actually what I would get.

10:36Let me just show you what I mean.

10:37If I go back to online.tableau.com,

10:40essentially, if I go to any of these work

10:42books,

10:42let's say I go to Superstore here,

10:44let's tag this something else.

10:46I'll just call this something.

10:48Okay, so save the tag,

10:51and now that's saved, the metadata API

10:55should update,

10:56so let's go ahead and run that,

10:58and you'll see here that there's this new

11:00tag here

11:01at the bottom, but if I don't want to

11:03return that,

11:03then what I need to do is actually add a

11:05filter

11:06to my metadata query over here on the left,

11:09so the way to do that is really simple.

11:11Essentially, if you just Google GraphQL

11:16query Tableau,

11:16you will find example queries,

11:21and it actually shows you how to build

11:23these queries

11:24very, very easily, and if you go down,

11:27you can actually see how the filter

11:29notation works.

11:30You bring the filter in,

11:31and then you give it the object that you're

11:33filtering,

11:34and then the thing you're searching within

11:36that object,

11:37if that makes sense, so if I go back to

11:39Tableau Online here,

11:40all I need to do is essentially just open

11:42up brackets,

11:43type in filter, of course it also completes

11:45,

11:45which makes things a little bit easier,

11:48okay?

11:48And then the thing I'm filtering

11:49is actually the name of the tag,

11:51so let's go ahead and enter that,

11:53so in order to do this, I need to do more

11:56curly brackets,

11:57and then hit name, and then hit a colon,

12:00and then the thing I need to do is as a

12:02string,

12:03just enter the name of the thing I'm trying

12:06to filter from,

12:06so in this case, it's stale content, okay?

12:10So there we go, we've added a filter to the

12:12tags,

12:12and what you should see when I run this now

12:14,

12:14if I can actually spell content,

12:16is that this bottom item here called

12:19something

12:19won't appear with any information connected

12:22to it,

12:22so let's go ahead and run that,

12:24and now you see that that disappears,

12:26and if I just zoom out so that it's easier

12:28to see that query change, so here it is

12:30with the filter,

12:31and if I just go ahead and grab this,

12:34and remove it, and then hit run,

12:36you can see that that something tag appears

12:38,

12:39so that's how you filter this, and if you

12:41're curious,

12:42there is actually documentation here on the

12:43right-hand side,

12:44so if I just type in tag, for example,

12:47it shows me information, and I can actually

12:49see

12:50what I can filter and work with here on the

12:52right-hand side

12:53with an example of the format that should

12:55be used,

12:56but of course, you can go to the Tableau

12:57Metadata API

12:58webpage and look at the sample queries that

13:00they have,

13:01and so I'll put a link to this in the

13:02description below,

13:03and you can have a look at that for

13:05yourself.

13:05Okay, so thanks for watching, I hope you

13:07enjoy the video.

13:08The Metadata API, the ability to tag style

13:10content,

13:11the combination of those two things

13:12are a really useful feature,

13:14and it's something that everyone should be

13:16using

13:16to try and manage content that's just

13:18getting out of control

13:19on their Tableau Online or Tableau Server

13:22instances.

13:23If you've enjoyed the video, you know what

13:24to do.

13:24If not, let me know in the comments below.

13:26I'll catch you in the next video.