0:00Hey it's Tim here. In today's video I'm
0:01going to show you how Tableau versions work
0:04and how to find
0:04out which version of Tableau you're using
0:06whether it's Tableau Online, Desktop, Prep,
0:09whatever you're
0:09using I'm going to show you how to find out
0:11the version. Let's get stuck in. Okay so I
0:13'm going to
0:13start first with Server and Tableau Online.
0:15I'm actually here on Tableau Online but
0:17Tableau Server
0:18has exactly the same technique. The first
0:20thing you need to do is head over to this
0:22question mark
0:23here on the top right hand side that I'm
0:24highlighting in red. Once you click on that
0:27there's another option at the very bottom
0:29that says about Tableau Online and when you
0:31get there
0:31you get the version number sort of laid out
0:33for you. Now the thing you need to worry
0:35about here
0:36is just these first few numbers. I'll
0:38explain this towards the end of the video
0:40but all you need to
0:40worry about is 2021.4.0 that's the version
0:44I'm on. I'll explain all those dots and
0:47what they mean a
0:48little later on. Now if I head out of Table
0:51au Online, let's close this, here I'm on
0:53Tableau Prep.
0:54The way to find out here is very simple. I
0:56'm actually on a Mac here so this is going
0:58to be
0:59much much easier. It's sort of slightly
1:01different in Mac and Windows. I clicked
1:03help there but it's
1:04actually different on the Mac. You go to
1:06this title here and in that option you have
1:08the about
1:09version there and again you get the same
1:11sort of pop-up and the version numbers
1:13displayed here. So
1:14Tableau Online is on 2021.4.0 whereas my
1:18Tableau Prep version here is on 2021.4.3.
1:22Now that doesn't
1:22really matter because everything is on 2021
1:26.4 but in essence if you have some issues
1:28maybe there's
1:29some bugs you might find that your server
1:31is still running an older version and again
1:34I'll explain
1:34the version numbers shortly but that's just
1:36the important thing to bear in mind. Those
1:38dots
1:38actually do matter especially when issues
1:41turn up. So let's close Tableau Prep and
1:43let's head to
1:43Tableau Desktop. Again I'm still on a Mac.
1:46Now Tableau Desktop and Tableau Public
1:48share the same
1:49setup so again they're going to work the
1:51same way. So for this you go to Tableau
1:53Desktop anytime
1:54you've got it open you go over here to the
1:56Tableau option you'll see there's a few
1:58more options.
1:58If I open the about page you'll see that
2:01this time here at the very top we get that
2:03version. So this
2:04is on 2021.4.2. So Tableau Prep, Tableau
2:08Online and my Tableau Desktop at least on a
2:10Mac are all
2:11on slightly different versions but the key
2:14thing here is they're all on 2021.4. Okay
2:17so that's a
2:18Mac done. Let's go over to Windows and find
2:20out how that works. So now here I'm on my
2:22Windows
2:23Virtual Machine. Actually I'm remoted into
2:25my desktop which is right next to me it's
2:27not virtual
2:27at all but I'm in remote desktop connection
2:30here and if I go to help and I click about
2:32on Tableau
2:33Desktop you'll see that I get the exact
2:34same setup here. So it's slightly different
2:36between Mac and
2:37Windows but that's how to find out the
2:39versions and by now you should know how
2:41this works on
2:42Tableau Prep. If I go to the help option
2:44there hit the about Tableau Prep Builder
2:46you'll see that we
2:47get the option there and the version
2:48numbers right there at the bottom. So that
2:51's all the ways of
2:52finding out which version. Now if you're
2:54using something like a Tableau utility or
2:56anything that
2:57runs in the background what they'll
2:59typically have is some sort of
3:00documentation that allows
3:02you to either do some command line
3:04parameters that will tell you the version
3:07or if it's a utility
3:08that runs in your taskbar like Tableau
3:10Bridge if you right click on that there
3:12will be an about
3:12section that will explain which version it
3:14's on. Those tend to need to be updated to
3:16match the
3:17versions of Tableau Online or server that
3:19you're running so just be aware of that but
3:21other than
3:21that that's how to find out what version of
3:23Tableau you're running. Okay now I've
3:25explained
3:25how to find out which version you're using
3:27now it's time to explain what the versions
3:30actually
3:30mean. How did the version system work for
3:32Tableau? Let me go over to the browser here
3:34and you can see
3:35that I've just written down the different
3:37versions we came across whilst looking
3:38through what versions
3:39I had installed on my machine. For Tableau
3:42Online we had 2021.4.0, for Tableau Desktop
3:45we had 2021.4.1
3:47and for Tableau Prep we had 2021.4.3. That
3:50's essentially because each of these
3:52software,
3:53Tableau Online, Tableau Desktop and Tableau
3:55Prep are released at slightly different cad
3:57ences. I'll
3:58come onto that a little later but what's
4:00really key here is that the version number
4:02okay and
4:03that's what you need to pay attention to.
4:04If I scroll down I've actually broken it
4:06down for you
4:07so here we have 2021 part one that's
4:09essentially just a year so we're in 2022
4:12now so every version
4:13this year is going to start with 2022. The
4:16release essentially typically relates to
4:19the quarter so
4:20there's typically four releases a year and
4:23they come out roughly every every three
4:26months so you
4:27know that makes sense there's there's four
4:29releases a year they come out every quarter
4:31essentially is how it works but in essence
4:34the second part is just the release so 2021
4:38.1 was the
4:39first release in 2021. 2022.1 will be the
4:43first release in 2022 so that's essentially
4:46how that
4:46works it's really that simple. This last
4:48dot here this catches a lot of people out
4:50this is just the
4:51patch version for that particular release
4:54so if you think of each release each
4:57quarter as being
4:58a distinct thing essentially they might go
5:01back and fix things within that release.
5:03Now let's assume
5:04that Tableau releases a new version of
5:06Tableau in the first part of this year of
5:08course it will be
5:09called 2022.1.0. The .0 means it's the
5:13first release of that particular release if
5:16that makes
5:17sense. Now when they find mistakes or when
5:19we report mistakes in the products or when
5:21we get in
5:22touch with them and say hey this isn't
5:24working correctly they install patches and
5:26those patches
5:27are then deployed as subsequent point
5:29releases to that release so in this
5:32particular case we'd go to
5:332022.1.1 and so if I actually go to the
5:37Tableau release pages if I just go here
5:39Tableau releases
5:41if I go to the release page I can actually
5:43do this a slightly different way I don't
5:46know why I searched
5:46that particular term I think this would
5:48this will work just fine if I go to this
5:50page and I just
5:51look at Tableau desktop if I open this
5:53little drop down you'll see that there's
5:55multiple releases okay
5:57so 2021.4 was the first one because of the
6:00log4j issue they released a patch so 2021.4
6:03.1 and then
6:04after that 21.4.2 if I go back a bit
6:07further you can see that they do patch
6:09these quite frequently
6:10and so if I keep going back you'll see that
6:13you know you can even go all the way to
6:152020.3.14
6:17which is essentially the 14th patch of the
6:202020.3 release so it's a bit of a tongue tw
6:23ister to sort
6:23of get all this right but in essence all
6:25the products get updated at slightly
6:27different
6:28cadences and so that's why those things
6:30matter now the reason these patches matter
6:32is sometimes
6:33they fix known issues if I go to the top
6:36and I just go and I search Tableau known
6:39issues
6:40known issues are essentially things that
6:42Tableau are aware need fixing inside of the
6:45product so
6:46if I go into this and I just go down here
6:48and I look at this you'll see that there's
6:51actually a
6:51list of things that Tableau are aware that
6:53need fixing and you can see these are open
6:56items and
6:56they typically tell you the product that it
6:59affects now when they fix these things they
7:01're
7:01actually included in patches and those
7:03patches will have release notes so if I go
7:05to let's go
7:06to one that doesn't have anything about log
7:084j let's go to 21.3 let's go to this one 21.
7:113.5
7:13let's open that up and if I go all the way
7:14down you'll see the release notes contains
7:16updates to
7:17log4j 21. okay that's a log4j one of course
7:20they went back and fixed a bunch of stuff
7:22let's find something they didn't fix okay
7:26that still still contains a log4j issue let
7:30's go all
7:30the way back let's go to 24 here come on so
7:33you can see here there's a resolved issue
7:36and this
7:36issue id is actually something you would
7:39have found in this page here so this page
7:42here has
7:42these issues ids and over here when they
7:45get fixed you'll see them in the versions
7:47so the reason that
7:49final dot matters is that sometimes you
7:51come across a bug and you need it fixed and
7:53you therefore
7:54need to understand exactly which version
7:56you're on in order to make sure that you
7:57get the version
7:58that no longer has that problem I can't
8:00tell you how many times I've been using
8:02Tableau desktop
8:03prep or whatever and thought that I don't
8:05know how to use something thought that I've
8:08sort of
8:08forgotten how to use something only to find
8:10that actually it's a known issue and you've
8:12come across
8:13a an edge case and they're normally workar
8:15ounds for this there's normally other ways
8:17of doing
8:17the same thing in Tableau anyway but you'll
8:19find them all here and they should be
8:21documented
8:22I will also say that not all known issues
8:24are actually logged on this page which is
8:26why it's
8:27also important to check this page but you
8:29know genuinely send in your requests to
8:31Tableau support
8:32and make sure they validate that it's a bug
8:34so that you are not wasting your time you
8:37know
8:37bashing it against the wall trying to fix
8:39something that you can't fix so that's how
8:41all the versions
8:41work if I go back here to the version I
8:43have in Excelidraw the first part is the
8:45year the second
8:46part is the release and the last part is
8:48the patch that's all you really need to
8:50know now what I will
8:51briefly say is that look all of these
8:53software have slightly different cadences I
8:55've mentioned
8:56this already but they update in slightly
8:59nuanced ways because in essence each
9:01product has sort of
9:03come from a different heritage so if I go
9:05to Tableau prep Tableau prep doesn't tend
9:08to update
9:08old versions with new features so for
9:11example if you find a bug in 2021.3.3 the
9:15only option here
9:16is to upgrade to 2021.4 because they only
9:19update that version for a short window of
9:21time you can
9:21see that they move quite quickly and they
9:23tend to release these things on a monthly
9:26cadence so you
9:27can see that they actually did do some of
9:29these patches if I go back here to 21.2.3
9:32they actually
9:33did patch this I believe with the log4j bug
9:36so it's really really important that you
9:38sort of
9:39do check these and make sure that you kind
9:41of make sure that you're using the right
9:43version and you're
9:44not going to be sort of left behind because
9:46you've you're stuck with an old version
9:48that isn't going
9:49to get updated so Tableau prep has that qu
9:51irk it's actually interesting they updated
9:53the log4j issue
9:54here on this one because they previously
9:57said they wouldn't update this version so
9:59that's sort
10:00of interesting to see so you know they do
10:01change their mind as well but nonetheless
10:04that's that's
10:04how it works I'll stop rambling and
10:06hopefully you found this video useful
10:08please hit subscribe if
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10:11subscribe if you found this video useful or
10:13share it with
10:14someone who might find it useful and yeah I
10:16'll catch you in the next video.
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