Tableau Server & Online Tagging Updates in 2020.3 & Metdata API

0:00Hey, it's Tim here and in today's video I'm

0:02going to be taking you through the new

0:03tagging updates in 2020.3.

0:06My previous video I actually covered how to

0:08tag stale content, but this video I'm going

0:10to be focusing purely on how to tag assets

0:13in your Tableau server or Tableau Online.

0:17Now you do need the data management added

0:19in order to do this, so if you're watching

0:21this video and you can't see the external

0:24assets section here on the left hand side,

0:27before you go in there and it's not working

0:28correctly, you do need to make sure that

0:30you actually have that enabled on your

0:31server.

0:32It is unfortunately at an additional cost,

0:34but it has a couple of useful features that

0:36might be worth the price if you're looking

0:38to go down that road.

0:40Now if I go into the external assets area,

0:42you'll notice that the group that you

0:45arrive at is the database and files.

0:48And when we're here, this is essentially

0:50showing you a range of assets on your Table

0:53au server.

0:54If I click on this drop down, you'll also

0:56see that we have tables available to us.

0:58So these are essentially the tables that

1:00sit inside of those databases or files as

1:02it were.

1:03So here you tend to see sheets from Excel,

1:06but if I go back to the top one, you will

1:08tend to see Excel files as the assets in

1:11this particular level.

1:13And if I go back to the explore page and I

1:16simply go to look at the workbooks, what

1:19you've been able to do for quite some time

1:20now is actually tag content.

1:22So if I just, for example, click on this, I

1:24can always go down here to tag and then I

1:27can add a tag to suit my needs.

1:30So I can just say a new tag here. Let me

1:32just tag this. I hit the enter button there

1:34too quickly.

1:35Let's try that again. Let's hit new hyphen

1:39tag. It doesn't like the space button.

1:42Any space basically enters the character

1:44and you basically get a new tag.

1:47So I'm going to save that as a new tag and

1:49there we go. We're pretty much done.

1:52But the new feature in 2020.3 is we're

1:54actually able to tag not just things like

1:57workbooks and data sources and sheets,

2:00but we can actually go in and individually

2:02tag assets such as databases, tables and

2:05even columns inside of those tables as well

2:08.

2:09So I'm going to show you how that works. I

2:12'm going to go over to the external assets

2:13area.

2:14And essentially the first thing I'm going

2:16to do is I'm going to tag this database

2:18here. This is a Salesforce.

2:20This is a Salesforce authentication. So it

2:22's essentially just pulling in information

2:24from Salesforce.

2:25And if I go down here and I just click on

2:27the tag here, you'll see that I've actually

2:29already tagged this as Salesforce.

2:32OK, so I'm going to also call this, I'm

2:35just going to put live, for example,

2:37just going to call it that it's a live

2:38connection because essentially these are

2:40credentials that I've saved on Tableau

2:42Online.

2:43And I've got the most in the workbook. So

2:44when we actually query the information, it

2:46's almost reading it directly from Sales

2:48force.

2:49So I'll leave it as live and just to give

2:50it some sort of different notation there.

2:53And then the next thing I want to do is to

2:56actually go into a table and tag the table.

3:00Then I'm also going to tag a specific

3:02column in the table. So I'm going to go to

3:04Superstore here.

3:05This is essentially acts as a database. And

3:07you can see here that we've got a table

3:09here called orders.

3:11And this is actually one of the sheets you

3:12find in that Excel file. If you're slightly

3:14lost in this view,

3:16you've always got this lineage area here on

3:18the right hand side that you can actually

3:20use to give you some guidance.

3:21If I want to go down to the workbook, I can

3:23just do that here and just keep going

3:25further down the hierarchy until I get to

3:28the owners of the workbook,

3:30which in this case is, of course, just me.

3:32But let's go back to the Superstore sales

3:34here.

3:35And what I want to do is I want to click on

3:36this table because this is what I actually

3:38want to go to.

3:39And when I'm here, I can do two things. I

3:42can tag this table and I call this sales

3:45hyphen table and just hit enter.

3:48And I'm going to save the tags. And the

3:51next thing I can do is I can also tag these

3:54columns.

3:55Now, you'll notice there's a column here on

3:57the right hand side that says no tags

3:59available.

4:00That just means I haven't tagged this

4:01content. But let's say we've got a

4:03calculation that's really specific and

4:06maybe we want to be able to tag it.

4:08So we know where certain information is

4:10being used. All you need to do is to click

4:12on the column name.

4:14This opens up this nice pop up window. And

4:16here you can edit the tags as well.

4:18So, for example, you could tag this as a

4:20field that uses personally identifiable

4:22information.

4:23So you can say PII. And when you save that

4:26tag, it's obviously going to go and be

4:28assigned to that field.

4:30Now, let me just do that again. I think I

4:33didn't hit the right thing there. So let's

4:37just type in PII.

4:39And hit enter. There we go. That's saved.

4:42And then hit save again.

4:44And now that's actually happened correctly.

4:46You can add multiple tags. You don't just

4:47have to add one.

4:49I can also add another one here that says

4:51sales and notice that my tags are universal

4:53.

4:54So they're not exclusive to any type of

4:55content. I can tag this as Salesforce or

4:58they wouldn't make sense in this case

5:00because this data is actually an Excel data

5:02source.

5:03So I hit save here as well. So now we've

5:05added two tags and overall we've added

5:07three.

5:08We've added one to a column, one to this

5:10table and also one to a database. So you

5:12might be wondering, well, what use is this?

5:14How can I go find this content? Well, the

5:17first place you can go is the explore page

5:18where on the right hand side,

5:20you can filter your content based on tags.

5:24Now, at this point, I'm on a top level

5:25project.

5:26So of course, I don't get the ability to

5:27look at tags because tags don't exist at a

5:30project level.

5:31But if I go to workbooks, you'll see the

5:33filter pane on the right hand side changes.

5:36And now I can actually start to interact

5:38with my tags. But notice that these tags

5:41are only specific to the workbooks.

5:44If I go to the data sources and I go back

5:46down to this dropdown, you'll see that I

5:48just have one tag for stale content.

5:51Essentially, what's happened here is in the

5:52previous video I recorded, you can check it

5:54out. I actually tagged this as stale

5:56content.

5:57So this tag is still here. So you're

5:59probably wondering, well, where are my

6:00other tags?

6:02Well, in order to do that, we need to go

6:03back to the external assets.

6:05And what I'm going to do is I'm going to

6:06very quickly show you a cool feature which

6:09you can use with the metadata API,

6:11which allows you to very quickly query

6:13these tags. Before I do that, it's also

6:16worth mentioning that you do have the

6:18ability to look at tags here on the right

6:20hand side.

6:21So if I click live, for example, you'll see

6:22that that comes up there. Salesforce comes

6:25up there.

6:26If I go down to tables and I look at this

6:28as well, you'll see that I have just the

6:30one tag here for sales tables.

6:33But if I clear the filters and I go back in

6:34here again, you'll see that I still can't

6:36see every single time that I created.

6:39Well, the best and easiest way to do that

6:41is to jump over here to this interface.

6:44And this interface essentially allows you

6:46to talk to the metadata API.

6:48Now, this is not designed to be a

6:49production level interface that allows you

6:52to export data like a CSV or Excel file.

6:55But it is designed for you to look at what

6:57the API can actually offer you.

7:00You'd need to do a bit of heavy lifting

7:01yourself to actually use the API, maybe

7:03connected to a third party system that

7:05manages assets across your organization.

7:07So you can track where things are going. So

7:10let's go ahead and run this.

7:11And you can see I actually already pre

7:13entered a query here just to filter this

7:15list.

7:16It's very, very simple. You essentially

7:17start by naming the asset you want to look

7:19at.

7:20In this case, it's tags. And then you bring

7:22all the sort of information about those

7:24tags of the ID, the name.

7:27And here I want to actually call out the

7:29assets.

7:30Then I go and get the asset ID, because

7:31what I can then do with that is link it to

7:33other information.

7:35And then the type of asset that it is. And

7:37you'll see that this is loaded a nice list

7:38here on the right hand side.

7:40So essentially, you can see here that I

7:42added a new tag and this has actually been

7:44applied to a workbook and a sheet.

7:47Essentially, the sheet is actually inside

7:49of that workbook, which is why those two

7:51sort of come in hand and hand in hand.

7:53Now, I also earlier marked stale content,

7:55and you can see that this has applied it to

7:57the workbook and the sheet.

7:59So these two are sort of linked whenever

8:01you apply a tag to a workbook, it's

8:03automatically pushed down to the sheet.

8:06And also any published data sources that

8:08might sit inside of that.

8:10But the other thing to bear in mind is that

8:12you can also tag data sources separately.

8:15So you need to do a little bit of

8:16validation to make sure that data source

8:19isn't part of a workbook or it is part of a

8:20workbook, or maybe it's published

8:22separately.

8:24Earlier on, you saw me tag the PII

8:25information. And the really cool thing is

8:27it's actually pulled that information out.

8:30So this is a great way of tagging a series

8:32of content on your server and then being

8:34able to very, very quickly find it.

8:37If I just scroll down this list, you can

8:39see a few other tags that have been created

8:41.

8:42For example, the sales table tagged to a

8:44database table. And this is all information

8:46that's easily available.

8:48If I just remove the ID just to make this

8:49list a little bit shorter, we actually just

8:52get a list of the type of assets.

8:54So you can see here that this sales item

8:56has been tagged to two columns here.

8:58And of course, I've removed the ID, but you

9:00can of course go and find that out.

9:03Now, the way I know what to type here is

9:05essentially I'm just using this capability

9:07here on the right hand side that shows me

9:09what to type.

9:11So if I just type in asset and then I go to

9:13tag assets, then it tells me what those

9:16things are.

9:17So if I go into Taggable, then basically

9:19this is what it's returning.

9:21This list here, for example, is just a list

9:23of the implementations here on the right

9:25hand side.

9:26So that's pretty much all that's going on.

9:27It's a very, very simple list and it's a

9:30nice feature.

9:31And so if you're really into managing

9:33content and you need to be aware of

9:35information that's being used inside of

9:37Tableau,

9:38and actually you want to bring that out of

9:40Tableau into a metadata system,

9:42the API is a really powerful way of

9:44actually going into Tableau, getting that

9:46information out and storing that

9:48information,

9:49maybe in an external database in your

9:51organization.

9:52So you can not only track what Tableau is

9:53aware of, but you can also track where

9:56information is being used in your entire

9:57organization to give you a much higher

9:59level overview of what's going on.

10:02OK, thanks for watching this video. It

10:04ended up really deep inside of this, you

10:07know, admittedly code heavy sort of

10:08interface.

10:09But I just wanted to show you how you can

10:11use the metadata API to query information.

10:14And don't forget, of course, this is just a

10:16temporary interface to use this and see

10:18what you can get.

10:19And ideally you'd want to build something a

10:22little bit more robust to find out how to

10:25use that.

10:26If you want to learn more about the

10:27metadata API, I highly encourage you to

10:29follow my colleague, Andre.

10:31If I just go back to YouTube here, you get

10:33to see all my great tastes.

10:36Andre De Vries, here we go. And we go to

10:39his channel and you'll see that he's

10:41actually got a video here about the

10:43metadata API.

10:44So this is a really good video just to give

10:46you a deep dive into how you should be

10:48using it.

10:49And he goes into a little bit of depth

10:51about metadata API and also GraphQL and how

10:53you can use that to to to to make

10:55everything work for you.

10:57OK, thanks for watching. I'll catch you in

10:58the next video. If you've enjoyed the

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11:09.