0:00In Tableau 2020.2, Tableau have added the
0:02ability to see dashboards in the lineage of
0:06your Tableau assets.
0:08Now if you're wondering what this is about,
0:09this is about a general feature called the
0:11Tableau catalog.
0:13You actually need a specific add-on for
0:14your Tableau server or Tableau Online
0:17environment in order to be able to see it.
0:19But I have a developer version here, so I
0:20actually have access to that here, so I'm
0:22going to show you.
0:24In order to access your data lineage, you
0:26need to actually go here to the external
0:28assets and you'll see this list of items
0:31here.
0:32And I've actually got a Salesforce
0:34connection in my test environment that I
0:36use for testing purposes.
0:38So that's what I'm going to click on and
0:39you'll see that when I click on it, it
0:41gives me some metadata about that data
0:43source.
0:44Now the key thing here is that this catalog
0:46then allows me to look over here to the
0:48right hand side and see the lineage.
0:51And this is what Tableau have been adding
0:52features to over the last few versions.
0:55Most notably in this version, they've added
0:57the ability to see dashboards.
0:59So you can see here that I'm connected to
1:00this Salesforce item. Let me zoom in to
1:02make this clearer.
1:04I'm connected to the Salesforce item. There
1:06's six tables in that item.
1:08I then have two workbooks that use that
1:10data source. And in those two workbooks,
1:13there's 13 sheets and those 13 sheets form
1:17two dashboards.
1:19And it has one owner, notably myself.
1:22So this is a really cool feature, but this
1:25goes a bit beyond that.
1:26So if I just click on dashboards, you'll
1:28see that the two specific dashboards appear
1:31.
1:32But let's say I want to analyse this in
1:34more detail. Let's go back to one of the
1:37tables and let's look at the account
1:39information that we have.
1:42So let's start this analysis on the account
1:44level. This is the account table in my
1:46Salesforce connection.
1:48Now you'll see here the number of sheets in
1:50which these fields are actually being used.
1:54And if I just sort of scroll down, you'll
1:56see that I'm not actually using many of
1:58these fields.
1:59So if I simply say, what if I change the
2:01industry field to be replaced by something
2:05else?
2:06What impact would that have on my Tableau
2:08server?
2:09Well, if I tick this industry here, you'll
2:11see it's highlighted in blue.
2:13You'll actually see here a small visual
2:15isation that shows you the impact of that
2:18one field across all your different assets.
2:22So we're obviously aware that it comes from
2:24the Salesforce database, but it actually
2:27has an impact on all the workbooks.
2:30Basically 11 of 12 sheets, all the dash
2:33boards and it impacts me as an owner.
2:37Now this information is actually available
2:39to you through something called the
2:42metadata API.
2:43So you can actually query this information
2:45yourself using that API and then get that
2:48information back,
2:50maybe into your sort of custom service that
2:52has all this information stored.
2:54So this is a really, really powerful
2:56feature.
2:57We can pretty much start asking questions
2:59from anywhere we want and then start being
3:02able to analyse the impact
3:04these changes have across our entire
3:07workflow.
3:08So this is a really, really powerful
3:09feature.
3:10It's great to have this edition of dash
3:12boards in there and it just gives you that
3:14more granular view of what's going on.
3:16And of course, if you want to see some of
3:18these items, if you click on dashboards
3:20here and you go to the workbook,
3:22you can just go in and see exactly what's
3:25going on and start looking at the views by
3:28just going over here to the left.
3:30So you'll notice that I've gone over to a
3:32different part of Tableau and all I've done
3:35is switched this tab over here
3:37that explains the lineage of this
3:40particular asset.
3:43So it's always in context of where you are.
3:45If I go back to the home page and maybe let
3:47's say I go to the Viz vocabulary,
3:50you'll see that I have the lineage
3:52available to me over here and I can
3:54actually see all the different data sources
3:57and even the databases in which all this
3:58data comes from.
4:00So even on this workbook, which I didn't
4:02build, my colleague Andy Kreeble built this
4:04.
4:04It's one of the best workbooks on Tableau
4:06Public. Go check it out.
4:08I'll put a link in the description.
4:09You will see that I can see all the
4:10different files that have been used to
4:12comprise these different views.
4:15And it starts to give me a context about
4:17what's being used, where and why.
4:20And that's a really, really powerful
4:22feature.
4:23That's it pretty much.
4:25If you've enjoyed this video, hit the like
4:26button, hit subscribe.
4:28If not, drop a comment below.
4:29Let me know what you'd like to see instead
4:31on the channel.
4:32I'll catch you in the next video.
4:33Bye.
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