0:00What is Tableau Embedding? Well, the term "
0:03embedding" simply means to put one thing
0:06into something else.
0:07If I take a circle and I put it inside of a
0:09square, I've embedded the circle in the
0:11square.
0:12And in the context of Tableau, when you do
0:14exactly that, you're basically taking Table
0:16au and you're putting it inside of another
0:19system or application.
0:21That is, in essence, what Tableau Embedding
0:23is.
0:24But in this video, I'm going to break down
0:26all the detail you need to know to
0:27understand terms like "embedding", "embed
0:30ded", and how exactly that works with Table
0:33au Public, Tableau Desktop, Tableau Cloud,
0:35Tableau Server, and what are the benefits
0:38of doing this in a business context.
0:41As ever, let's get stuck in.
0:43If you've watched my 10-minute explainer on
0:45Tableau, you'll know that Tableau is a
0:47growing platform.
0:48And since I made that video, Tableau has
0:50morphed into an even bigger platform.
0:53When we talk about embedding, it's
0:54important to understand what parts of the
0:56Tableau platform you can embed.
0:58And in this video, I want to break that
1:00journey down and that explanation into four
1:03sections.
1:04The first thing I want to talk about is why
1:06we should do and think about embedding,
1:08what you can specifically embed, and then
1:10following that, where you can embed these
1:13objects.
1:14And then the very final thing is to talk
1:16more broadly about embedded analytics and
1:18why it might be a concept to pay more
1:20attention to in the current climate and
1:22also in terms of where technology is
1:24heading.
1:25Let's get into the first item. Why should
1:26you think about embedding?
1:28Ultimately, there's only one reason that
1:30companies choose to embed Tableau elsewhere
1:32, and that is because they want to use the
1:35Tableau platform instead of having to build
1:37their own version of an analytics tool.
1:40And so when you extrapolate that a little
1:42bit further, you start to think about use
1:44cases where businesses might actually embed
1:46Tableau inside of other applications.
1:49And there's fundamentally two groups. There
1:51's internal use cases and there's external
1:54use cases.
1:55Internal use cases are things like employee
1:57portals or internal systems and processes
2:00where employees need to be able to see
2:02information about the business so that they
2:04can act and move the business forward.
2:07External use cases are when a business
2:09realizes that they hold onto data that's
2:11valuable.
2:12And so what they want to do is turn that
2:14data into a commodity that they can sell to
2:16other businesses and their customers.
2:19And so in order to do that, they need to
2:20present the data in a specific way, make it
2:23easy to access.
2:24And lo and behold, guess what? Tableau has
2:26a platform that allows you to do that.
2:29So in the external context, Tableau is
2:31essentially becoming the white label
2:33service that these businesses are using to
2:35share data with their customers.
2:38And so those are the two splits. And so
2:40ultimately boils down to business use cases
2:42.
2:43If it's internal, then you're likely trying
2:45to make it easier and faster for people to
2:47make decisions, bringing data to portals,
2:50bringing data to where people work.
2:52And if it's external, then you've probably
2:54taken that idea one step further and you've
2:56built an application or a portal where your
2:58own customers can log in and use that data.
3:01Okay, now that I've explained why you might
3:03embed, let's move on to what you can embed.
3:06Generally speaking, there are four, maybe
3:08even five things you can embed.
3:11And let's start off by covering the first
3:12one, which you've probably come across
3:14before, which is a view.
3:16Now, it's a bit confusing to be detailed
3:18about exactly what a view is in the Tableau
3:20sphere, but I'll keep it simple in this
3:22video.
3:23And I'll just call it either a dashboard or
3:24a single chart that you want to share with
3:26people.
3:27You maybe have already done this. Maybe you
3:28've gone to Tableau Public, you've clicked
3:30on that share button and you've grabbed the
3:32embed code.
3:33That is essentially what you're doing there
3:34.
3:35You're grabbing the code that allows you to
3:37embed that visualization inside of a blog
3:39or inside of another web page.
3:41It's really that simple. In fact, I've
3:42probably just shown you how to do it whilst
3:44I'm speaking.
3:45The next thing you can do is you can embed
3:47the editing experience.
3:49Now, the editing experience is a little bit
3:51more nuanced.
3:52You need to be a creator in order to use
3:54this, but ultimately it allows you to build
3:57your own charts for the purpose of
3:59exploring data.
4:00And the benefit of doing this is that as a
4:01business, you don't have to build your own
4:04design tool to build and work with data.
4:07You can essentially just take Tableau and
4:08take the editing experience that's actually
4:11quite popular and has been copied by many
4:13other tools around the internet.
4:14And you can just use that on your own data
4:16source to allow people to do visual
4:18exploration with their data.
4:20It's quite simple. Now, these next two are
4:22a little bit more nuanced because frankly,
4:25I don't think they'll exist for much longer
4:26.
4:27But these are specifically Tableau metrics
4:30and Ask Data.
4:31Now, these are two strange parts of the
4:32Tableau platform.
4:34I call them strange because at this moment
4:35in time, AI is a huge technology and it's
4:38likely that these two are about to change
4:41to some completely different capabilities.
4:43For example, Tableau Pulse in the future
4:45will probably allow you to embed its
4:46capabilities around other places.
4:49So strictly speaking, let's say there are
4:51four things that you can embed.
4:53A view, the editing experience, Tableau
4:57Pulse, Ask Data or metrics as they're
4:59formally called.
5:01And there's actually a fifth one. You can
5:03actually embed an empty data source, but
5:05that's more of a quirky thing.
5:07And that's for nerds, but we'll cover that
5:08maybe in another detailed video.
5:10Let's keep this simple for now. And now let
5:12's go in and talk about where you can embed
5:14these things.
5:16So when it comes to where you can embed
5:17these objects, it's actually quite simple.
5:20You can embed them on web pages. And the
5:22reason that is, is because if you go to
5:24Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud,
5:26these are themselves just web pages feeding
5:28off other systems and applications.
5:31And so that's the best way to think about
5:32it. Sometimes you might hear the
5:34terminology of applications, but I just
5:36like to think of this as a web page.
5:39Now, when you go and get your embed code,
5:41you'll be given some HTML and JavaScript.
5:44This is essentially the code required to
5:46run the visualization.
5:48And Tableau actually uses this to do a
5:50couple of things, to query the data from
5:52the Tableau server, bring it to the browser
5:55,
5:55and then render the visualization inside of
5:57a box or render the editing experience or
6:00whatever you've decided to embed inside of
6:02your application.
6:03That's essentially how this works.
6:05Now, the key things you'll need to do and
6:07make sure you're working with are
6:09authentication,
6:10because in order for you to make sure you
6:11're sharing the right data with the right
6:13person, you're going to need to know who
6:14they are.
6:15So this is where things get a little bit
6:16technical. But it's important to understand
6:18that your application, the app or the thing
6:22you're building,
6:23takes care of authentication, essentially
6:25making sure that Tim is actually Tim.
6:28And once you've done that, you need to hand
6:29that information over to Tableau Server or
6:31Tableau Cloud.
6:32And you do that through a very sort of
6:34complicated authentication and trusted
6:36system.
6:37But long story short, it's a handshake
6:39between the two applications to say, hey, I
6:41verified who Tim is, and here is
6:43credentials.
6:44And then Tableau takes those credentials
6:46and figures out what I can and can't see as
6:48it would do on Tableau Server or Tableau
6:50Cloud.
6:51And then it hands the data back to that web
6:53code that we talked about, the JavaScript
6:55and the HTML.
6:56And then that renders the visualization as
6:58it's supposed to or whatever you've chosen
7:00to embed.
7:01So that's essentially the simple process.
7:03And you're doing this inside of the
7:04application.
7:05I'll try and put some examples of embedded
7:07applications.
7:08And I'll also try and include some URLs
7:10that are actually public available visual
7:12izations that are doing exactly this.
7:15The only difference is they don't need any
7:16authentication because they're just public
7:18to the whole world.
7:19But if you're working inside of a business
7:20context, you'd probably need to log in or
7:23you might need to use your username and
7:24password in order to see them.
7:26But at the end of the day, you'd never know
7:28that there were Tableau and you'd never see
7:30the Tableau logo in any part.
7:32The only exception to this is Tableau
7:33Public because that's free.
7:35Tableau will keep that little logo at the
7:37bottom of the page to let you know that
7:39this visualization is being made by Tableau
7:41.
7:42So that's sort of the nuts and bolts. Now
7:43it gets far more complex.
7:46And if you're a developer who's looking for
7:47the real nerdy stuff, don't worry.
7:49This video is part of a full series where I
7:50'm going to go through all the examples.
7:53In the next video, we're going to talk
7:54about the Tableau Embedding Playground.
7:57This actually allows you to test out the
7:58capability of embedding and it actually
8:00generates code for you.
8:02So you can use that code to go and do embed
8:04ding in real life.
8:06But for now, that's more or less the
8:07technical concept.
8:09The very last thing to do is to talk about
8:10embedded analytics.
8:12The final thing to cover is what is meant
8:14when people talk about embedded analytics.
8:17What does that concept, what does that term
8:19mean?
8:20Well, in this whole video, we've actually
8:22been describing the technical process of
8:24involving Tableau in an embedded analytics
8:26solution.
8:28But when we talk about embedded analytics,
8:29it's actually in a broader context.
8:32A business might be building an application
8:34or a system or a process.
8:36And embedded analytics simply means finding
8:38a tool that allows the process or the
8:41application to have analytics within itself
8:43.
8:44So a good example might be if we take
8:46Amazon.com.
8:48Amazon.com currently does it, in my opinion
8:49, have a good embedded analytics solution.
8:53Because there's no easy way for you to see
8:54the total transactions over time and
8:57download all your transactions and see the
8:58categories and visualize them and tell a
9:00story about your Amazon purchases.
9:02And so as an example, Amazon, in my opinion
9:04, doesn't have an embedded analytics
9:07solution.
9:08And it maybe doesn't need one because once
9:09you've ordered the product, they probably
9:10don't want you to feel guilty about your
9:12purchases.
9:13So in that instance, probably not a good
9:15idea.
9:16But your bank, for example, might actually
9:17be interested in the concept of embedded
9:19analytics when it comes to showing you
9:21transactions in your bank account.
9:23Banks these days are interested in making
9:24sure you know about how you're spending
9:26your money.
9:27And instead of having to build their own
9:28visualization tool, they might give Tableau
9:30a call and they might say,
9:32"Hey, Tableau, could we include your
9:33application, Tableau, as part of an
9:35embedded solution inside of our banking app
9:37?"
9:38And as a result, what you'll see is when
9:40you go to look at your transaction, you
9:42might get a little bar chart, a little
9:43visualization.
9:45And that's actually being powered by Table
9:46au.
9:47And that's all embedded analytics is.
9:49Taking another tool, taking another
9:50technology and putting it inside of your
9:52own system.
9:53There's several benefits, not least you don
9:54't have to go and build it yourself.
9:56But actually sometimes someone else will
9:58have built a better analytics tool than you
10:01possibly could
10:02because those companies are just focused on
10:03that specific end goal.
10:05That is their business. That is how they
10:07work.
10:08And so you might have heard of Tableau
10:09doing this.
10:10And you'll also hear other technologies
10:11being used.
10:12D3 as an example is a pretty common one.
10:15But ultimately, that's all it is.
10:17It's just a concept about putting analytics
10:18inside of a solution that you're building.
10:21In the next video, we're going to go check
10:22out the Embedding Playground.
10:24That is a tool that allows you to test out
10:26the capability of embedding.
10:28And it also allows you to generate the code
10:30required to do exactly that.
10:32And lots of different scenarios, including
10:33code samples that lets you do far more
10:35advanced things
10:37that you can now do with the new Embedding
10:39API version 3.
10:40Thanks for watching, and I'll see you in
10:41the next one.
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Tableau | Data visualisation | Analytics